2008 ALJ salary table

[southerner]

While Googling, I found the 2008 OPM salary table for ALJ's with locality pay.

RUS (rest of US), or minimum, is $112,614.

The 3 highest pays are:

$131,867 (San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland)

$126,753 (Houston)

$125,728 (New York City)

www.opm.gov/oca/08tables/html/alj_loc.asp

[skibum]

Thanks for the information, Southerner! It comes at a good time, as interviews start this week...

[judicature]

Maybe my math is bad, but that looks like a 3% increase over the 2007 table - with a 3.5% increase, the salary should be around 113201 for Rest of US.

109373 x 103% = 112654
109373 x 103.5% = 113201

[southerner]

The 3.5 is the authorized cola and locality pay, so it can vary widely depending on locality difference. The RUS, from what I had read (either Washington Post or Government Executive online) had 2.99, so judicature's calculations are in line with that.

[judicature]

I learn something new every day.

Thanks southerner.

[southerner]

Glad to be of assistance.

[johnthornton]

It won't make a difference to you candidates now, but over time there is severe pay compression in the pay scale. After you have made it to the top of the pay scale, there is a pay cap that compresses the pay and almost eliminates the locality pay differential. For example, next year, Judges in NY and San Francisco at the top of the pay grade make only around $3,000 more than judges in the lowest cost cities in the country.

[jagghagg]

Johnthornton is correct, but the same can be said of any pay scale - once you reach the top, you reach the top. Period. There just ain't no futher you can go if no "further" exists. The difference is that - for federal employees - the ALJ pay scale tops out higher than either the GS pay scale or the "new" NSPS pay scale. About $30,000 higher, as a matter of fact - and THAT substantially improves your retirement.

[johnthornton]

It is $30,000 higher as jagghagg says. Just remember that locality pay won't come close to making up the difference in cost of living if you accept an offer in a very high cost location.

[kolekole]

Am I missing something? With the GS scale capped at $149,000, and ALJ capped at $158,500, it appears that the difference in annual base salary for retirement calculations would be $9500, not $30,000. In fact, it appears the executive schedule pay raise must have been 2.5 percent, as that is the change in the top of the ALJ chart.

[kolekole]

Good article in the Washington Post today on the pay raise. There's some info about the pay compression problem:

The annual raise has pushed the top of the General Schedule scale, which covers most federal workers, to $149,000 in the Washington area. By law, General Schedule pay cannot exceed that of assistant secretaries and general counsels of departments and heads of smaller agencies, known as Executive Schedule Level IV.

Washington joins 11 other areas with federal employees at the upper end of the General Schedule scale who have hit the statutory cap on salaries. The other cities include Boston; Chicago; Denver; Houston; New York; and key parts of California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Because their pay is linked to the Executive Schedule, the pay of these employees will increase by a smaller percentage than that of most other federal employees or remain flat.

Increasingly, rank-and-file employees are bumping into the executive pay scale because of their annual geographic adjustments, known as locality pay. Cabinet officials and others paid on the Executive Schedule do not receive locality pay, and the increases in that pay scale have not kept pace with General Schedule raises in recent years.

Members of the Senior Executive Service, a group of about 6,000 senior managers in the government, also do not receive locality pay and are not guaranteed an annual raise. Bush's executive order raises the minimum salary of a federal executive by 2.5 percent, allowing executives to earn $114,468 to $172,200.

With more rank-and-file employees being offered the potential to earn up to $149,000 in big cities, some officials are concerned that some talented employees will pass up a chance to compete for an executive position, since they do not come with guaranteed raises and do not have as many job protections as a regular federal position.

J. David Cox, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees, applauded the step by Congress to increase federal pay over Bush's initial proposal. Employees at the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will face a challenging year because of the Iraq war, and Social Security Administration employees are stretched thin in field offices where workloads are expanding, he said.

[jagghagg]

Pay should be discussed in terms of base rate without reference to locality pay. In 2007, the base pay (sans locality) at the top step (Step 10) for a GS-15 was slightly less than $121,000. For an ALJ, the pay topped out (sans locality) at $152,000, That's about $30,000 difference.

www.opm.gov/oca/07tables/indexGS.asp

www.opm.gov/oca/07tables/html/alj.asp

[kolekole]

The chart you attached for ALJs shows a base pay of $134,200 for an AL-3/F, which on a base pay to base pay would show about a $13,000 difference with the GS top base pay of $121,000 for 2007. The $152,000 figure you mention appears to be the locality pay for "Rest of US." The comparable figure for 2007 for the GS system would be $136,273, about $16,000 less.
I'm not certain, but I think the retirement pay calculation includes the locality pay, so for a long-term ALJ, especially as "Rest of US" approaches the caps, the difference in the retirement pay should be the relevant percentage times the difference in the Executive Schedule caps between levels III and IV, or $9500 this year.

[jagghagg]

Okaaaaay, if you assume you are not going to be the SSA Chief ALJ (AL-1) but you assume you MAY well become a Regional Chief ALJ (AL-2):

2008 - basic rate of pay for GS showing a GS-15/10 at $124,010.
www.fedjobs.com/pay/pay.html

2007 - basic rate of pay for AL-2 showing about $145,400.

Difference: $21,400
That's the potential of earning $21,400 more per year as an ALJ than a GS-15 attorney.

If, on the other hand, you expect never to rise above AL-3F at $134,200, then - but you expected to max out at the GS-15 level - you will only be earning (in the end) $10,200 more a year.

Okay, so it's not $30,000. (So Sue Me! BUT it takes a long time to get to the top of the GS-15 pay scale. (1 year between 1-2-3, then 3 years between steps, then more, I think but am not sure.) It is my understanding it takes a lot less time to reach the top pay scale (basic, sans locality) as an ALJ.

Even if you take the starting amount - say you are coming in from the outside - at $97,100 and compare it to the GS14-1 (81,093), you BEGIN your federal service by earning $16,000 more as an ALJ than you would as an attorney. Even if you were lucky enough to start in federal service as a GS-15, ($95,390), you'd still start out $1700 ahead.

(BTW, it is my understanding that only CSRS federal employees are able to count locality pay into their retirement. FERS employees calculate their retirement based on basic pay.)

federaljobs.net/retire/annuity.htm

To be covered under CSRS, you must have had at least five years of civilian service creditable under CSRS as of December 31, 1986. If you were hired - or will be hired after that date, you will be covered by FERS. Ah'm bettin' most of us are FERS which means locality pay will NOT be calculated in your high three for retirement.

[kolekole]

Agreed, for someone coming from outside the system, it takes 18 years to go from GS-15, step 1 to step 10, and only 10 years (two years per step?) to go from AL-3/A to AL-3/F, and you end up at a higher pay level, no less than the separation between Executive Levels III and IV.

With respect to CSRS versus FERS retirements, the webpage you provided refers to using "basic pay" for both, so both would appear to be calculated using the same salary figure. I think that "basic pay" means without any special pays, rather than "base pay" being the same as "basic pay." Maybe a recent retiree can clarify if they are getting a portion of their "high three" or their "high three base pay."

[testtaker]

I'm a bit confused by the chart. If it has a rate for "New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA". Is that just for NYC, Newark NJ, and Bridgeport CT? I'm not sure if its those specific cities or whether the NY-NJ-CT-PA area? I'm wondering where Albany, NY & Syracuse, NY pop up in this. Are those two places, "rest of U.S."?

[kinghenryiii]

Actually, under 5 C.F.R. § 930.205, an ALJ is automatically advanced successively to rates B, C, and D l upon completion of 52 weeks of service in the next lower rate, and to rates E and F of that level upon completion of 104 weeks of service in the next lower rate.

[lurker]

testtaker said:

I'm a bit confused by the chart. If it has a rate for "New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA". Is that just for NYC, Newark NJ, and Bridgeport CT? I'm not sure if its those specific cities or whether the NY-NJ-CT-PA area? I'm wondering where Albany, NY & Syracuse, NY pop up in this. Are those two places, "rest of U.S."?

This link: opm.gov/oca/08tables/locdef.asp defines each of the localities in more detail. It will give you the specific counties that are included in each locality pay. While the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, etc., locality does include counties in Pennsylvania like Monroe County and Pike County, Syracuse and Albany are considered "rest of the US". Go figure.

[testtaker]

lurker said:

This link: opm.gov/oca/08tables/locdef.asp defines each of the localities in more detail. It will give you the specific counties that are included in each locality pay.

Thanks. I had been viewing it on my handheld and I was unable to find the link to the locality definition page. Now that I'm on my regular computer I see that I would have been able to locate it by clicking on a few links and looking (lurking?) around. Thanks Lurker

[jagghagg]

kinghenryiii said:

Actually, under 5 C.F.R. § 930.205, an ALJ is automatically advanced successively to rates B, C, and D l upon completion of 52 weeks of service in the next lower rate, and to rates E and F of that level upon completion of 104 weeks of service in the next lower rate.

Hey- just for the fun of it, I patterned out how much one would make starting out as a GS-15 versus how much starting out as an ALJ. I used 2008 base pay tables for GS and the 2007 base pay for AL-3A through AL-3F (as in “friendly and fun”). Turns out, it would take 19 years to become a GS-15, step 10. So I compared the base rate for each year of a 19 year career as a GS-15 to the amount you would be earning each of those years as an ALJ. Over a 19 year career, you would make a minimum of $267,800 more as an ALJ as opposed to a GS-15.