Federal Manager's Daily Report

More than 90 percent of SES members are rated at one of the top two levels of their five-level rating system, OPM has said in a report showing that ratings overall increased slightly in 2015 over 2014.

Of the 6,500 career execs rated in 2015, 48.8 percent were rated at level 5 and 41.4 percent at level 4, compared with 47.9 and 41.5 percent, respectively, in 2014. Almost all of the rest were rated at level 3, while just 0.3 and 0.4 percent in those two years were rated at level 1 or 2.

The percentage rated at the highest level varied substantially by agency. At the top of the two dozen agencies for which specific figures were reported were State, Justice, NSF, AID and Education—State’s figure was 84.9 percent and the others 66.7 or more—while the lowest was VA, at 11.6 percent—a figure that dropped by 4.5 points from 2014 as execs there continued to be a focus of scrutiny related to the department’s patient scheduling and care scandal. Also on the low end were OPM, OMB, HHS and GSA.

Government-wide, 71.2 percent of execs received a performance award in 2015, up from 68.4 percent, with the average amount increasing by several hundred dollars to above $11,900 and above $9,000 for levels 5 and 4, respectively, while the average award for level 3 dropped by about $100 to above $8,300.

The average SES salary was $170,582, up from $168,357.