Executive Extras

Do you ever wonder how generous your agency is with bonuses, and how it stacks up against others? Each year, the Office of Personnel Management releases data on career executive bonuses that allows such comparisons.

The most recent information, which covers 2005, shows executives at the Veterans Affairs Department earned the healthiest bonuses. OPM's data put VA executives at an average of $16,713 in bonuses for that year, with more than three-quarters receiving them.

These VA officials earned well more than the average executive bonus in the federal workplace, which sat at $13,814 for 2005. About 66 percent of career senior executives across government received the extra pay that year.

VA executives were followed closely by their colleagues at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 88 percent of whom took home bonuses averaging $16,261 in 2005. Agriculture Department executives weren't far behind, with average $15,945 bonuses for 83.7 percent of executives.

At the other end of the spectrum, executives at the Energy Department received an average of $9,064. That's $7,649 less on average than their colleagues at the VA. Executives at the Housing and Urban Development Department and Small Business Administration were also at the low end, earning bonuses in the $9,700 range.

There were a couple of interesting changes from the 2004 bonus figures. NASA, which had been the most generous agency with average bonuses of $17,483 in 2004, dropped to a $15,857 average in 2005. SBA, which in 2004 gave all of its career executives a bonus, only rewarded about 70 percent of them the next year.

Where were executives most likely to get a bonus in 2005? The General Services Administration awarded bonuses to 97.5 percent of its executives, and the Labor Department gave awards to 95.9 percent. On the other hand, State Department officials granted bonuses to only 32.3 percent of executives.

The following is an inventory of average bonuses and the percent of executives receiving them, by agency.

*AID included only one group of agency executives in time for this report.

Source: Office of Personnel Management