The Asbury Park Press, which like Federal Times is owned by Gannett, this morning posted their latest database of federal salary and bonus information.
APP obtained 2011 salary data for most federal employees through a Freedom of Information Act request. A user can search by name, agency, job title, and location, and find out many feds’ grade levels, salaries, and bonuses for 2011. For example, a search for “Geithner,” “Treasury” and “District of Columbia” will reveal Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was paid $199,700 last year and received no bonus.
The list is not comprehensive, however. It doesn’t include FBI, CIA, Defense Department, or IRS employees, or employees involved in security work, nuclear materials or national security matters. A separate U.S. Postal Service database can be found here.
What do you think about this database? Will it spark conversations in your office about what your colleagues are making? Are you angry that federal salary data has been posted publicly? Sound off below.
15 Comments
Since I work for DoD and this is one of several excluded agencies, for all intents and purposes, I have no dog in this fight.
That said, I find this to be a gross invasion of privacy and a complete breaking of faith with federal employees at large.
The only salaries that should be posted are those employees of the federal government who are elected to their positions, or whose appointments require congressional approval, excluding military officers.
It is reprehensible that APP/Gannett has decided to provide Persionally Identifiable Information (PII) about federal employees that leaves them open to even more attempts to steal their identities or expose them to physical harm and is worse than accidental federal laptop leaks because this is deliberate and disguised as being informational for the public.
More information on PII and the role of the government in protecting this information is included in this link: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08343.pdf.
Furthermore, if APP/Gannett is concerned about how much money is being spent on salaries, they should consider whether the salary of the individual is based upon their education level, years in the position and what someone in an equivalent job in the private sector would be paid for the same experience and education level. Furthermore if bonuses are based on production levels, and the employee has met those production levels, they should be paid based on the work that they had provided. APP/Gannett should also state whether the agency that it is reporting on provides the salaries based on fees collected by those that use the Agency’s services or whether it is paid directly from taxpayer funding. Not all government agencies are funded by taxpayer dollars. If Gannett was truly being responsible, they would also include contract amounts for each of the contractors and the employees of those contractors working for the federal government (without PII). My best guess would be that contract employees and their corporations cost taxpayers more than all federal government salaries combined.
Reporting information in a rational way, showing both sides of an argument, basing these arguments on facts not opinion, providing sources for these facts and not slinging mud are what makes journalism worth reading. Unfortunately it is a dying art.
It’s about time we see the inflated salaries government workers are being paid. Time to make some cuts.
They have been publishing Metro workers salaries for years. It’s about time we see where our tax dollars are going.
Responding to Alias: In a way, I wish DoD wasn’t excluded from this list so my salary as a senior engineer in the DoD could be viewed. At the same time, I wish I could take IEEE’s salary survey and post it along with all the other 0850, 0855 series civil servants. There, you would see that in many cases, particularly for the senior grades, the private sector salaries are substantially higher and the benefits packages are better to boot with the possible exception (and only exception) of annual leave earned.
But whether this would do anything to placate the hordes of lemmings so willing to take twisted and distorted data as gospel from on high remains to be seen.
Somehow I doubt it.
Really doesn’t bother me. I’m paid by the taxpayers so they have a right to know. .
The GS pay scale was public anyway, but I am not sure they should have attached names to the list, because even govt workers deserve some privacy.
This is outrageous to publish names and salaries. It’s one thing to publish the salaries without the names. All of this data could have been released without the name column. That would have satisfied public information responsibilities. But with the names this an outrageous invasion of privacy. I’d like to know what groups are protesting this invasion of privacy and how I can support them.
Is there anything we can do about this? Yes, we work for the public but this is an invasion of privacy. I would like to know the same as angry-gov-employee!!
Personally, I think it’s good news to be able to check my colleagues awards and pay for ‘comparable’ work. I look forward to this being an equitable process—and this certainly helps.
I am a Federal employee, and I have no issue with my salary information being posted. The Freedom of Information Act allows this info to be disclosed, and it is public record. I do not feel that it compromises my identity in any way. I find this information useful, as there is obviously some serious pay inequality going on in my agency that is not related to experience or education and this gives me proof.
I’m a contractor and this information is good to know.
It is sad how some loosers are making big dough while others who do more work are making less than half.
It is bad that your salary is for everyone to see, not fair to public employee, because when they sign up to work for government, no one tell them this will be public information, including their bosses, since these government employees salary is already set and they are not controlling it or have a way of applying additional fund like politician, it seem wrong to show their salary for the world to see. it does protect the public from anything. IT JUST MAKE THE PUBLIC ANGRY NOW THAT THE PRIVATE SECTOR WHERE MOST PUBLIC PEOPLE WORK ARE CUTTING SALARY AND LAYING OFF PEOPLE , WHEN THEIR NEIGHBOR WHO WORK FOR THE POST OFFICE STILL HAVE JOB AND MAKE GOOD MONEY AND HAVE PENSION!!!! OF COURSE, THESE PUBLIC PEOPLE DON’T REMEMBER BACK IN AROUND THE 80’S WHEN THE ECONOMY WAS STRONG, THE GOVERNMENT CAN NOT MATCH THE SALARY THE PRIVATE SECTOR PAID THEIR EMPLOYEE, THE GOVERNMENT CAN NOT FIND ANY YOUNG PEOPLE TO FILL IN THE VACANY, SO THEY PROVIDE JOB SECURITY AND GOOD PENSION TO TRY TO ATTRACT JOB SEEKER, IN THOSE DAY, NO ONE LOOK FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEE SALARY, NO ONE CARE. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER?
I worked for the Federal Government for approximately 31 years and I believe that unfairness is very much alive in the workplace. I saw it before my retirement and after checking this site (which I am glad to have found), I have no doubt that it is still going on.
I believe that every citizen and taxpayer in this Nation has a right to see the salaries of Federal/Government employees. After all, the citizens and taxpayers pay the salaries of those employees; and – in my opinion – some of those don’t really earn their pay.
It should be public information.
Because Federal Government is a not for profit organization, there are so many government workers that once they make it past their probation periods, they basically sleep for the next 30 years, waiting on their retirement. The difficulty in firing a Federal employee is so great, and all Federal employees know this, that they can do just the bare minimum and collect a paycheck.
With a public company, achievement means money. If an employee is not performing, that employee will be let go. Very simple economics. If a public companies product is sub par, consumers will not purchase it and the company will be forced to re-organize their way of business. With federal employment, there is a never ending supply of taxes from the American people, so there is never competition.