GAO Assesses Value of Benefits

The benefits that come with federal employment typically are worth about half of an individual’s salary, a higher percentage than in the private sector but less than that for uniformed military personnel, the Government Accountability Office has found. In a report focusing on military compensation, GAO said that the average total cost of compensation for a civilian federal employee was $92,330 in 2003, counting pay and benefits, compared with $50,509 for the average private sector employee and $112,000 for the average uniformed military person. Within those totals, for federal employees pay accounted for 67 percent and benefits for 33 percent, while for private sector pay accounted for 82 percent and benefits 18 percent, and for uniformed personnel pay accounted for 49 percent and benefits for 51 percent. GAO added, however, that the military benefits figures are skewed by the high value of deferred benefits such as retirement pay and health care coverage after retirement, since fewer than one in five service members stay long enough to collect retirement.