Explain IRS Office of the General Counsel pay to me Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am considering a job there. I want to know what a career path would look like. Check these links: http://jobs.irs.gov/student/occ-benefits.html and http://www.opm.gov/oca/11tables/html/gs.asp

Are yearly promotions pay increases in STEPS or GRADES? The stupid GS system. If anybody has experience I would like to know how it works in reality. I've just never considered government pay systems.

Would it look like this for a JD student:

Year 1- 62019
Year 2- 74337
Year 3- 88397
Year 4- 88397

Or like this:

Year 1-62019
Year 2- 63695
Year 3- 65371

[nealric]

You will go up the GS scale fairly quickly at first, but they become less automatic as you go along.

I believe steps are automatic with seniority.

[Anonymous User]

You will go up the GS scale fairly quickly at first, but they become less automatic as you go along.

I believe steps are automatic with seniority.

That makes sense. So you go up in grades pretty fast at first, slowing as time goes on. Steps are automatic. Bingo.

The path might look like this then:

Year 1- GS 11 Step 8
Year 2- GS 12 Step 8
Year 3- GS 12 Step 9
Year 4- GS 13 Step 9
Year 5- GS 13 Step 10

[nealric]

Something like that. IIRC, lawyers on the GS scale top out in the mid 100s after about 10 years, and don't get much in the way of raises after that.

[schooner]

...

[Anonymous User]

OP -- The office of the general counsel is headquartered in DC, so if that's where you'll work, you should be looking at the DC pay table: http://www.opm.gov/oca/11tables/html/dcb.asp You'll see that the starting pay is higher. You'll have to figure out the pay table yourself if you work in one of the field offices elsewhere.

To the other posters -- you're suggesting that IRS lawyers top out at $100s? I'm really surprised by this; I expected the ceiling amount to be in the $150s or higher. For one thing, the top lawyers in the federal govt aren't on the GS pay scale. For example, many are on the Executive Service scale, which pays higher.

They have offices all over the place, and I am looking at a minor market. Good point on the localized pay scales, mine is higher than the one I was citing to.

There is a pre-bonus cap of something like 144k for non-executive IRS lawyers, or there was at some point recently.