The United States federal civil service is the civilian workforce (i.e., non-elected and non-military public sector employees) of the United States federal government's departments and agencies. The federal civil service was established in 1871 (). U.S. state and local government entities often have comparable civil service systems that are modeled on the national system to varying degrees.
The U.S. civil service is managed by the Office of Personnel Management, which in December 2011 reported approximately 2.79 million civil servants employed by the federal government. This included employees in the departments and agencies run by any of the three branches of government (the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch) and the over 600,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service.
Types of employees There are three categories of U.S. federal employees:
The competitive service includes the majority of civil service positions, meaning employees are selected based on merit after a competitive hiring process for positions that are open to all applicants. The Senior Executive Service (SES) is the classification for non-competitive, senior leadership positions filled by career employees or political appointments. The excepted service (also known as unclassified service) includes jobs with a streamlined hiring process, such as security and intelligence functions (e.g., the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Department, etc.), interns, foreign service professionals, doctors, lawyers, judges, and others. Agencies with excepted service authorities create their own hiring policies and are not subject to most appointment, pay, and classification laws.
Hiring authorities A hiring authority is the law, executive order, regulation that allows an agency to hire a person into the federal civil service. In fiscal year 2014, there were 105 hiring authorities in use. The following were the top 20 hiring authorities used that year, which accounted for 91% of new appointments:
+Hiring authorityService typeNumberDescriptionCompetitive examiningCompetitive44,612Vacancies open to the public and posted on USAJobs. Applicants ranked and selections made by category rating. Veterans' preference appliesDepartment of Veterans Affairs, Title 38Excepted30,240Exclusively for Veterans Affairs to hire certain medical occupations.Schedule A: Agency-specific AuthorityExcepted11,220Allows agencies to meet a hiring need that has not been remedied by using competitive examining, with justification and OPM approval.Defense National Guard technicianExcepted11,143Unique non-Title 5 hiring authority used strictly for appointment of National Guard technicians. Appointees maintain a dual status as both a federal employee and state national guard member.Veterans Employment Opportunities ActCompetitive11,011Allows eligible veterans to apply for positions announced under merit promotion procedures when an agency accepts applications from outside its own workforce.Other law, executive order, or regulationBoth10,745Authorities granted by law, executive order, or regulation for which no specific OPM-designated hiring authority code exists.Pathways internshipExcepted8,862Targets students at qualifying educational institutions. Interns eligible to be noncompetitively converted to competitive service under specified conditions.Temporary appointment, based on prior temporary federal serviceCompetitive8,344Allows agencies to noncompetitively reappoint former temporary employees (who have not already served the maximum time allowed) and noncompetitively appoint others eligible for certain career conditional appointments.Veterans recruitment appointmentExcepted7,733Allows agencies to appoint eligible veterans up to the GS-11 or equivalent level without regard to competitive examining procedures. Appointees are converted to competitive service appointments after 2 years of satisfactory service.Alternative Personnel System, Department of AgricultureCompetitive6,630Provides hiring flexibility exclusively to the Forest Service and the Agricultural Research Service.Transportation Security AdministrationExcepted4,540Provides hiring flexibility exclusively to the Transportation Security Administration.Government-wide direct hire authorityCompetitive4,449Allows agencies to fill positions OPM has determined have a severe candidate shortage or a critical hiring need. Public notice is required but not the application of veterans' preference or applicant rating and ranking.ReinstatementCompetitive3,624Allows former eligible federal employees to reenter the competitive service without competing with the public.Pathways Recent GraduatesExcepted2,845Targets individuals who have recently received a degree or certificate from a qualifying institution. After completion, eligible for non-competitive conversions to competitive service under specified conditions.Federal Aviation AdministrationExcepted2,676Provides hiring flexibility exclusively to the Federal Aviation Administration.Schedule A: severe physical disabilitiesExcepted2,204Allows agencies to appoint persons with severe physical disabilities. Allows for non-competitive conversion to competitive service after 2 years of satisfactory service.Department of Defense expedited hiring authorityCompetitive2,080Allows DOD to hire qualified candidates for certain acquisition and health care occupations using direct-hire procedures where DOD has determined a shortage of candidates or critical hiring needs.Demonstration Project, Defense LabBoth2,032Allows DOD to hire science and technology personnel at Research Labs with modification or waiver of some Title 5 provisions.Schedule A: Temporary, less-than-full time positions, critical needExcepted1,688Allows managers to meet a short-term critical hiring need to fulfill the mission of an agency for up to 30-days with one 30-day extension.Schedule A, attorneysExcepted1,627Enables agencies to hire attorneys because OPM cannot develop qualification standards or examine for attorney positions by law.
Pay systems
The pay system of the United States government civil service includes principally the General Schedule (GS) for white-collar employees, Federal Wage System (FWS) for blue-collar employees, Senior Executive System (SES) for Executive-level employees, Foreign Service Schedule (FS) for members of the Foreign Service and more than twelve alternate pay systems that are referred to as alternate or experimental pay systems, such as the first experimental system China Lake Demonstration Project. The current system began as the Classification Act of 1923Pub. Law no. 516, Ch. 265, 42 Stat. 1488 (March 4, 1923). and was refined into law with the Classification Act of 1949.
These acts that provide the foundation of the current system have been amended through executive orders and through published amendments in the Federal Register that sets for approved changes in the regulatory structure of the federal pay system. The common goal among all pay systems is to provide equitable salaries to all involved workers regardless of system, group or classification. This is referred to as pay equity or "equal pay for equal work". Select careers in high demand may be subject to a special rate table, which can pay above the standard GS tables. These careers include certain engineering disciplines and patent examiners.NASA.gov
The General Schedule (GS) includes white collar workers at levels 1 to 15, most professional, technical, administrative, and clerical positions in the federal civil service. The Federal Wage System or Wage Grade (WG) schedule includes most federal blue-collar workers. In September 2004, 71% of federal civilian employees were paid under the GS. The remaining 29% were paid under the Federal Wage System for federal blue-collar civilian employees, the Senior Executive Service and the Executive Schedule for high-ranking federal employees, and the pay schedules for the United States Postal Service and the Foreign Service. Some federal agencies—such as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation—have their own unique pay schedules.
All federal employees in the GS system receive a base pay that is adjusted for locality. Locality pay varies, but is at least 15.95% of base salary in all parts of the United States. The following salary ranges represent the lowest and highest possible amounts a person can earn in base salary, without earning overtime pay or receiving a merit-based bonus. Actual salary ranges differ adjusted for increased locality pay. , all base salaries lie within the parameters of the following ranges:
Pay grade GS-1 GS-2 GS-3 GS-4 GS-5 GS-6 GS-7 GS-8 GS-9 GS-10 GS-11 GS-12 GS-13 GS-14 GS-15 Lowest step (1) $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Highest step (10) $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
In 2009, nineteen percent of federal employees earned salaries of $100,000 or more. The average federal worker's pay was $71,208, compared with $40,331 in the private sector, although under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, most menial or lower paying jobs have been outsourced to private contractors. In 2010, there were 82,034 workers, 3.9% of the federal workforce, making more than $150,000 annually, compared to 7,240 in 2005.
GS salaries are capped by law, so that they do not exceed the salary for Executive Schedule IV positions. The increase in civil servants making more than $150,000 resulted mainly from an increase in Executive Schedule salary approved during the Administration of George W. Bush, which raised the salary cap for senior GS employees slightly above the $150,000 threshold.
Federal agencies
Civil service employees work in one of the 15 executive departments, or one of the independent agencies. A number of staff organizations are grouped into the Executive Office of the President, including the White House staff, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Independent agencies include the United States Postal Service (USPS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). There are government-owned corporations such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC), more commonly known as Amtrak.
In March 2022, there were 392 federal agencies including 9 executive offices, 15 executive departments, 259 executive department sub-agencies and bureaus, 66 independent agencies, 42 boards, commissions, and committees, 11 quasi-official agencies.
Employment by agency +Federal Government executive branch civilian employment,except U.S. Postal Service, fiscal year 2016(Employment in thousands) WorldwideD.C.Combined Total 2,096 173Executive departments 1,923 132Defense, total 738 16.5Army 251 2Navy 207 12Air Force 169 0.5 Other defense 80 2Veterans Affairs 373 8Homeland Security 192 24Treasury 92 9Justice 117 Agriculture 97 7Interior 71 4Health/Human Services (HHS) 87 4Transportation 55 8Commerce 46 3Labor 16 5Energy155State1310Housing/Urban Dev (HUD)83Education43Selected independent agencies17341Social Security Administration640.2NASA171Environmental Protection Agency164Securities and Exchange Commission53General Services Administration124Small Business Administration40.8Office of Personnel Management52
In January 2009, about 2 million civilian workers were employed by the federal government, excluding, the postal service and defense.