How to Compare Federal and Private Business Salaries by Occupation

What to take away

The five step comparison method

Matching your title to a federal series

Federal business jobs use four-digit series codes. Management and program analysis is 0343. Budget analysis is 0560. Accounting is 0510. Human resources management is 0201. Contracting is 1102. Financial analysis often falls under 1160.

If your title is business development manager, start with how business development roles are titled and paid to see why the pay plan often defines the role more than a GS series does.

For licensed fields, check CPA license requirements in New York, Illinois, and Florida because state rules change the private side of the comparison.

Also note that the BLS OES management analysts page gives national, state, and metro wage data for a common private sector match.

Reading GS grades, steps, and locality pay

OPM publishes the General Schedule with 15 grades and 10 steps. Each grade has a base rate, and locality pay adds a percentage for about 50 pay areas, with the percentage for each area printed in OPM's locality pay tables. Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York have their own tables. Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus are separate Ohio localities.

Find the grade that fits your target. A private management analyst with five years of experience might compare to GS-12 or GS-13. Step 1 is the entry point for that grade. Steps increase with time and performance.

For the broad picture of how the two pay systems compare, see BLS and OPM data on federal vs private sector salaries.

Pulling private sector benchmarks from BLS

BLS OES data gives wage estimates by state and metropolitan area. Use the SOC code to find your occupation. Management analysts are 13-1111. Accountants and auditors are 13-2011. Financial analysts are 13-2051.

For state-level management analyst wages, use the BLS OES management analysts page, which reports SOC 13-1111 by state and metropolitan area.

For accountants, the BLS OOH accountants and auditors page shows national and state medians, including public accounting.

Compare the 50th percentile, not the average, because a few high earners pull averages up. The OES tables show percentiles, which let you compare a 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile against your GS step.

The benefits tradeoff in total compensation

Federal benefits include FERS, which is a pension plus Social Security. The TSP matches up to 5 percent of salary. FEHB health insurance covers about 70 percent of premiums. Employees earn 13 days of annual leave to start, 13 sick days, and 11 paid holidays. FEGLI life insurance and FLTCIP long term care are also available. OPM publishes the employee share of each of these, and that share belongs in your federal total.

Private sector benefits vary by employer. A 401(k) match might be 3 percent, or nothing at all, and the plan's summary plan description states the rate. The BLS National Compensation Survey reports how common retirement and health benefits are across private industry. Bonuses and equity can close the gap, and health premiums may cost you more than the federal share.

Add the employer contributions to both sides before you declare a winner.

Worksheet: a management analyst in Columbus, Ohio

Say your private title is management analyst in Columbus, Ohio. Your SOC code is 13-1111 and your federal series is 0343, so both sides can be looked up by code rather than by title.

Fill the federal column from the OPM Columbus locality table at GS-12 step 1, the grade and step you chose above. Fill the private column from the BLS OES median for management analysts in the Columbus metro. Then subtract the federal employee share of FEHB and add the TSP match, so both columns end up as total compensation rather than base pay.

The arithmetic is the same on both sides:

The worksheet below keeps those lines straight; every cell comes from a published table you can open yourself.

Before you apply on either side, USAJOBS publishes federal resume and application guidance, and OPM publishes the qualification standards for each series, so you can check what a federal hiring reader looks for against what a private recruiter reads.

Common questions