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Hi, I am doing research on the federal attorneys' salaries. I checked out the GS pay scale and locality pay rates. I wonder does the federal government give any special allowance to its employees beside the normal pay, such as children allowance? And does the federal attorneys get any other allowance beside normal pay? Thanks!

Anonymous User wrote:Hi, I am doing research on the federal attorneys' salaries. I checked out the GS pay scale and locality pay rates. I wonder does the federal government give any special allowance to its employees beside the normal pay, such as children allowance? And does the federal attorneys get any other allowance beside normal pay? Thanks!

Allowance? What do you mean by "allowance"? And what in the world would a "children allowance" be? As in, "yes, you are allowed to have children?"

Federal agencies generally have very good to competitive benefit pkgs, that will vary somewhat from agency to agency. No agency I know of will provide on-site day-care or child care, and I'm not sure there's any type of federal reimbursement for such things. Many provide transportation credits/reimbursements for things like taking the bus or carpooling, and some agencies if you are doing a detail will provide housing assistance (and even more so if you are doing an international detail). Some agencies also have 10/4 schedules where you get to work 10 hours, 4 days a week and get Fridays off.

But "children allowance"? Please explain ....

Anonymous User wrote:Hi, I am doing research on the federal attorneys' salaries. I checked out the GS pay scale and locality pay rates. I wonder does the federal government give any special allowance to its employees beside the normal pay, such as children allowance? And does the federal attorneys get any other allowance beside normal pay? Thanks!

There is locality pay added to the base rate to make up for differences in cost of living between cities, but no, you don't get paid more if you have kids.

anon168 wrote: But "children allowance"? Please explain ....

Presumably the government and/or other employers of the OP's native country adjust pay scales based on family size.

Edit: didn't mean to be anon,
dead head

Also: for some reason this reminds me of the whole Devyani Khobragade thing, which is probably unfair to OP.

Anonymous User wrote:

anon168 wrote: But "children allowance"? Please explain ....

Presumably the government and/or other employers of the OP's native country adjust pay scales based on family size.

This is (or used to be) the case for people in the US Military.

anon168 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Hi, I am doing research on the federal attorneys' salaries. I checked out the GS pay scale and locality pay rates. I wonder does the federal government give any special allowance to its employees beside the normal pay, such as children allowance? And does the federal attorneys get any other allowance beside normal pay? Thanks!

Allowance? What do you mean by "allowance"? And what in the world would a "children allowance" be? As in, "yes, you are allowed to have children?"

Federal agencies generally have very good to competitive benefit pkgs, that will vary somewhat from agency to agency. No agency I know of will provide on-site day-care or child care, and I'm not sure there's any type of federal reimbursement for such things. Many provide transportation credits/reimbursements for things like taking the bus or carpooling, and some agencies if you are doing a detail will provide housing assistance (and even more so if you are doing an international detail). Some agencies also have 10/4 schedules where you get to work 10 hours, 4 days a week and get Fridays off.

But "children allowance"? Please explain ....

Its something that differs from office to office, but some federal agencies do provide on-site day care.

rinkrat19 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Hi, I am doing research on the federal attorneys' salaries. I checked out the GS pay scale and locality pay rates. I wonder does the federal government give any special allowance to its employees beside the normal pay, such as children allowance? And does the federal attorneys get any other allowance beside normal pay? Thanks!

There is locality pay added to the base rate to make up for differences in cost of living between cities, but no, you don't get paid more if you have kids.

If you on welfare and have more children then the government give more benefits.

Here is the link for Federal government pay scales.

http://archive.opm.gov/oca/10tables/indexGS.asp

indo wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Hi, I am doing research on the federal attorneys' salaries. I checked out the GS pay scale and locality pay rates. I wonder does the federal government give any special allowance to its employees beside the normal pay, such as children allowance? And does the federal attorneys get any other allowance beside normal pay? Thanks!

There is locality pay added to the base rate to make up for differences in cost of living between cities, but no, you don't get paid more if you have kids.

If you on welfare and have more children then the government give more benefits.

Here is the link for Federal government pay scales.

http://archive.opm.gov/oca/10tables/indexGS.asp

i'm assuming the welfare thing is a joke, but just in case...you do recognize the difference between minimal subsistence funds meted out on a per family member basis and a salary received for a job performed, right?

rinkrat19 wrote:i'm assuming the welfare thing is a joke, but just in case...you do recognize the difference between minimal subsistence funds meted out on a per family member basis and a salary received for a job performed, right?

But how am I going to be able to pay for a nanny/housemaid if I have to pay them the legal minimum wage and they don't give me extra money? SO unfair (said Devyani Khobragade).

In addition to your salary adjusted for your locality, at least at my agency there are still bonuses...that are not terrible although much lower than in the private sector. You also get one bar membership reimbursed. You get up to $120 a month (I think that's the cap) for use on public transportation and you get parking reimbursed if your office is in a city once you reach a high enough GS grade. Finally, there is of course a great benefits package with heavily subsidized health insurance, life insurance, a 5% match 401(k) equivalent, and a small traditional pension. There are also moving expense reimbursements, retention bonuses that can actually be very high, and student loan repayment but this depends on available funds. Some agencies do not use the GS scale and have higher salaries.

I believe the military is the only part of the federal governent that varies pay based on family size.

anon168 wrote:Some agencies also have 10/4 schedules where you get to work 10 hours, 4 days a week and get Fridays off.

Just out of curiosity, what agencies have this? 3 day weekends, every weekend, sounds pretty boss.

XxSpyKEx wrote:

anon168 wrote:Some agencies also have 10/4 schedules where you get to work 10 hours, 4 days a week and get Fridays off.

Just out of curiosity, what agencies have this? 3 day weekends, every weekend, sounds pretty boss.

This is not that rare at the agency level, but availability of specific schedules is generally up to the managers of a given section.

At the office where I work, there are a lot less people in on Fridays than the rest of the week.

I think it's available at a lot of agencies - some require you to put in X number of years before you can move to that schedule (I've seen 3-4 years). It doesn't always work very well if you're in litigation, since you can't guarantee your Fridays will be free. I've also seen it arranged so you get every other Friday off.

jrf12886 wrote:I believe the military is the only part of the federal governent that varies pay based on family size.

True, although it doesn't really "scale", per se - you either get the "with dependents" rate or the "without dependents" rate, and the "with dependents" rate is the same whether you have one dependent or ten.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:I think it's available at a lot of agencies - some require you to put in X number of years before you can move to that schedule (I've seen 3-4 years). It doesn't always work very well if you're in litigation, since you can't guarantee your Fridays will be free. I've also seen it arranged so you get every other Friday off.

This explains a lot why there was never traffic on I-395 on Fridays when I was in DC (despite the nightmarishly bad traffic every day except fri and around fed holidays). Note to self: find job at agency that allows 4 day work weeks and profit.