GovernmentExecutive.com

How do your 1.8 million federal co-workers feel about their pay and benefits? The Office of Personnel Management surveyed 220,000 of them to get an idea.

Some of the results released last week could have been expected. But there were some surprises, too.

Of 10 categories of compensation examined in the study, five were rated as satisfactory by at least 50 percent of respondents. The other five got a worse reception.

Time off from work was the most beloved. Out of the six possible answers (Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Neither Satisfied or Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Very Dissatisfied or No Basis to Judge) 88.4 percent of respondents said they were at least satisfied with their paid vacation. Just behind that, 85.9 percent were satisfied with their sick leave.

But levels of contentment dropped off fast after that. The third highest rated item was plain old pay. Just more than 61 percent of federal employees were at least satisfied with their salary level.

But pay satisfaction varied by grade. Nearly 73 percent of members of the Senior Executive Service surveyed said they were satisfied with pay. An even larger cut, 74.5 percent, of employees in the GS-13 to GS-15 levels were OK with their compensation. But the percentage dropped noticeably, to 60.5 percent, in the GS-7 to GS-12 range. And it was only 40.2 percent for employees in GS-1 to GS-6 level jobs.

Surprisingly, overall pay satisfaction edged out satisfaction with retirement benefits.

Federal employee advocates often make the case for higher federal salaries to compete with the private sector and keep recruitment and retention levels up. But they don't usually argue for better benefits. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office did a study in 1998 comparing federal to private sector benefits and found that employees in the Federal Employees Retirement System have more generous benefits than their counterparts in large private firms.

Every federal employee gets at least some level of a defined pension, whereas many private sector companies today offer only to match 401(k) contributions. Still, fewer survey respondents (60.8 percent) were satisfied with their retirement packages than were happy with their pay.

But this changed too, when looked at by pay grade. SES respondents had an 81.2 percent satisfaction rating for retirement. One notch down at the GS-13 to GS-15 level, that dropped to 68.7 percent.

Health and life insurance had comparable results to retirement packages, with 58 percent and 59.7 percent of respondents reporting satisfaction, respectively.

Contentment with alternative work schedules, such as the popular schedule that gives federal employees every other Friday off in exchange for longer hours the other nine days, fell in the same range. About 49 percent of employees were at least satisfied with their alternative work schedule. Only 11.9 percent said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, and 17.1 percent responded neutrally.

These percentages may be deceiving, though, because 21.8 percent of respondents said they had no basis on which to judge alternative work schedules. Only a single-digit number of respondents said they were unable to judge retirement or health insurance.

Rounding out the 10-part list were flexible spending accounts, with 31.8 percent of respondents satisfied, and long-term care insurance, with a 29.9 percent contentment rate. The "no basis to judge" figure came heavily into play in these cases also. Both had about 30 percent of respondents check that category. For child care subsidies, 62.9 percent of respondents said they had no basis to judge, leaving a mere 8.1 percent at least satisfied.

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said last year upon introduction of a bill offering expanded parental leave: "The federal government can't necessarily compete for talent with the private sector on a dollar-for-dollar basis, but we can make sure we are competitive in quality-of-life issues."

It's not clear that federal employees agree with him.