Breaking Barriers in Federal Pay

For the last several years, the topic of pay has been a hot-button issue in the Federal Government. As private sector giants continue purging top technology talent, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other agencies are working to increase the competitiveness of government offers and the attractiveness of federal technology and cybersecurity positions. To recruit and retain top talent, VA’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT) is breaking barriers and setting a bold new precedent for compensation and employee recognition by implementing a Special Salary Rate (SSR) for its technology and cybersecurity employees.

The SSR is a pay-setting authority that provides higher rates of basic pay for certain groups or categories of General Schedule positions to address existing or significant challenges in recruitment or retention. In this case, the SSR covers OIT’s employees in the 2210 (Information Technology Management), 0854 (Computer Engineering), and 1550 (Computer Science) Occupational Series, in General Schedule (GS) grades 5 through 15, nationwide.

“We’re excited to be able to offer our technology and cybersecurity employees this special salary rate,” said Christopher Paris, Acting Director of Cyber Workforce Management at VA. “This is a significant step toward addressing the long-standing issue of pay parity for federal technologists.”

A Team Effort

The process began approximately 18 months ago with an OIT-led interagency working group comprised of participants from five agencies (VA, Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Energy, Department of State, and Department of Health and Human Services) to develop a SSR request. These partners contributed their workforce management expertise, as well as staffing data and strategies to address recruitment and retention challenges to build a strong case for the SSR. Mr. Paris indicated that the interagency working group invited the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) into the process early on to ensure the right partners were engaged to thoroughly understand the challenges and data involved, as well as ensuring leadership buy-in.

The culmination of the group effort was VA, on behalf of its partners, submitting a request to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to authorize a government wide SSR for federal technology and cybersecurity positions. The proposed SSR would significantly improve the Federal Government’s ability to attract and bring highly qualified talent into its ranks, while also increasing the pay of staff in covered positions who already leverage their highly technical skillsets to securely deliver world class digital and cybersecurity services. The request was approved in January 2023, with implementation being placed on hold shortly thereafter to assess the SSR’s government wide financial impact.

Deeply committed to People Excellence, VA leveraged its own compensation authorities to authorize special rates for its technology and cybersecurity employees, with an effective date of July 16, 2023. “We had fantastic leadership within OIT who came in, recognized the challenges, recognized from the start that we’ve got to get the best people in the house, and recognized that to get them in the door, we had to increase the value proposition,” Mr. Paris says. With an average salary increase of 17 percent, establishing the SSR positions OIT to attract and retain top talent in technology and cybersecurity fields as it strives to become the best tech organization in the Federal Government. The SSR better aligns compensation with industry rates and enables OIT to create a place where top talent can pursue their tech career and feel supported.

Looking Ahead

VA is proud to be the first in government to take such a comprehensive step to address the pay gap between government and industry for its technologists. As for the future of the SSR across other federal agencies, Mr. Paris notes that “For the moment, VA is able to offer some of the highest rates of basic pay of any Title 5 agency for technologists in the Federal Government. My hope is that we’re setting the precedent,” he says. “And that we’re making it possible for other agencies to not only be able to justify the need for the SSR, but also the funding required to implement it. We hope our partners will be permitted to quickly join us.”

The SSR is a game-changer for VA’s technologists. It’s a chance for them to be paid what they’re worth and to be able to compete with their private sector counterparts. It is also a game-changer for OIT as it allow us to truly focus on People Excellence and build a compelling value proposition for why the best and brightest talent should join our ranks. As OIT’s Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chief People Officer Nathan Tierney says, “How we recruit, train and retain talent is critical to our ability to deliver IT products and services to support Veterans, their families and caregivers. The SSR is just one of many key initiatives underway to deliver an outstanding employee experience and mantra of People First, Mission Always.”