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Hi All,

Recently received an employment offer from a USAO. I have a couple questions about the AD salary scale.

First, the AD salary scale is dictated by years of experience. Do those years of experience only include years of federal employment or do they also include years in private practice?

Second, I will have an incomplete year of legal experience when I join the USAO. Is the increase in salary based on years of experience mandatory or discretionary? Also, would the salary increase happen immediately when I reached the next full year of legal experience, after one year with the USAO, or at some specific time in the year?

Third, are offers around the minimum AD scale salary common in USAOs?

Fourth, is it appropriate to attempt to negotiate the salary offer? Relatedly, who should I speak to about that (my most recent contact has been with the US Attorney)?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Edit: Removed some identifying information

AD pay scale sucks compared to GS. 25th is only relevant if you get a good review, 75th is only relevant if you get a bad review. They can pay you basically any way they want. Paying AUSAs like DAs strikes me as dumb, you’re going to lose all your people you’ve spent the mo day training if you can’t make ends meet and other people are willing and able to offer a larger salary.

The above doesn’t really answer the OP’s questions, at all, though, it’s just bitching about reality.

OP - it’s total years of experience, not limited to federal service.

Salaries are reviewed in the spring (April I think?) and you go up a grade based on where you are at that time. So if you hit six years of experience in June you have to wait till the following April to move up. The increase is mandatory though.

Offices vary somewhat by where they set their floor/cap. Some offices do keep everyone toward the low end; some try to push everyone higher. I don’t think what you’re facing is uncommon though.

(You probably know this but the AD-scale doesn’t include locality pay. I don’t know what the number they gave you is though, what you’d be paid or what the AD scale is.)

I personally didn’t try to negotiate because I am terrible at doing so, but I know people who have negotiated raises later down the road. I would probably bring it up with the USA by phone (but would also ask if there’s someone else you should be speaking with) but you might need to be prepared to hear no.

Big thanks to the second poster, appreciate the response.

-OP