A federal salary number by itself understates total compensation more than almost any private-sector offer. The benefits package is large, it is set by statute rather than by a manager’s discretion, and most of it is invisible on the announcement. This guide puts dollar figures on the major pieces, then works them against the pay that federal postings in our inventory advertise right now, so you have a live base to multiply against rather than a hypothetical one.
The pay the benefits sit on top of
As of Oct 6, 2026, the typical advertised pay across the federal postings we hold that allow remote work or telework is $122,404 a year. Split by tier, the typical figure on a fully remote federal posting is $113,939, and on a telework-eligible one it is $122,404. The GS grades advertised across those postings span 1–15.
Those figures come from USAJOBS postings, refreshed daily, not estimates. “Typical” means the median of each posting’s advertised midpoint, with hourly rates converted at 2,087 hours a year and postings that publish no usable pay left out. The GS pay scale guide explains how a grade and a locality turn into the number on an offer letter. Keep the typical figure in mind as you read on: every percentage below applies to it, and the point of the exercise is to see how much the percentages add up to on a real federal salary.
Retirement: FERS, the big one
Nearly every federal employee hired since the 1980s is covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System, which has three parts.
- The Basic Benefit, a defined-benefit pension. This is a guaranteed monthly payment for life, computed from your years of creditable service and your “high-3,” the average of your highest three consecutive years of basic pay. The formula is 1% of the high-3 for each year of service, rising to 1.1% a year if you retire at 62 or later with at least 20 years. Twenty years at the 1% rate replaces a fifth of your high-3 for life, with cost-of-living adjustments in retirement that for most retirees begin at age 62. You contribute toward it from each paycheck: 4.4% of basic pay for most employees first hired in 2014 or later, with lower rates for earlier hires. You are vested after five years of civilian service. A pension like this has almost vanished from private employment, and valuing it is the hardest part of the comparison; its worth to you depends mostly on how many years you stay.
- Social Security. Federal employees pay into Social Security and draw it like private-sector workers. This part is a wash in a comparison, since both offers include it.
- The Thrift Savings Plan. The TSP is the federal 401(k) equivalent, with the same tax treatment and very low fund costs. The employer side has two pieces. The agency puts in an automatic 1% of basic pay whether or not you contribute anything. On top of that it matches your own contributions: dollar for dollar on the first 3% of pay you contribute, then 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2%. Contribute 5% and the agency contributes 5%, for 10% of pay going in. Your own contributions and the match are yours immediately; the automatic 1% vests after a period of service set by the TSP rules, three years for most employees. Measured against the typical figure above, 5% of pay is the employer TSP contribution a federal employee who contributes 5% receives every year.
Health insurance: FEHB
The Federal Employees Health Benefits program offers dozens of plans in most areas: nationwide fee-for-service plans, HMOs and high-deductible options. The government pays a large share of the premium, set by statute: 72% of the program-wide weighted average premium, capped at 75% of any particular plan’s premium. In practice the government’s share is roughly 70 to 75 percent of what you would otherwise pay, and the employee share comes out of pay before tax. The dollar value depends on the plan and the family size, but for family coverage the government contribution runs well into five figures a year, which is why FEHB is the second-largest piece after the pension.
FEHB also continues into retirement, which is the part private comparisons miss. A retiree who was enrolled for the five years before retiring keeps the coverage with the same government share, for life. A private employer’s health plan almost always ends when the job does. If you are weighing a federal career against a private one and plan to stay long enough to retire from it, retiree health coverage is worth more than any single year’s premium share.
Leave and holidays
Federal employees earn two kinds of leave, and the rates are set in statute rather than negotiated.
- Annual leave accrues each two-week pay period: 4 hours for employees with less than three years of service, 6 hours from three to fifteen years, and 8 hours after fifteen. That is 13, 20 and 26 days a year. Most employees can carry 240 hours into the next year, and unused annual leave is paid out in cash when you leave.
- Sick leave accrues at 4 hours every pay period for everyone, 13 days a year, with no cap on how much you can carry forward. Unused sick leave counts as service time in the pension computation when you retire.
- Holidays. There are 11 paid federal holidays a year.
- Paid parental leave. Federal employees with a year of service get 12 weeks of paid parental leave after the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child, in addition to the leave above.
Add the holidays to the annual leave and a first-year employee has 24 paid days off; an employee past the fifteen-year mark has 37. On the typical figure above, each paid day off is worth roughly one two-hundred-and-sixtieth of salary, so the leave package alone is several percent of pay, and more for long-tenured staff than any private seniority ladder usually gives.
Life insurance and the rest
Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance gives basic coverage of roughly one year’s salary, with the government paying a third of the basic premium. Dental and vision plans are available at group rates with no government contribution. Flexible spending accounts exist too. None moves the comparison much alone, but together they are a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars a year that a private offer may not include.
Job security and predictable progression
This one resists a dollar figure, but it is real. A career federal employee past the probationary period has due-process protections that at-will private employment does not, and pay moves by a published schedule: within-grade step increases on a fixed timetable and promotions along a career ladder written into the announcement. A GS-9 announced as a GS-9/11/12 ladder tells you the promotion path before you start. Remote and telework arrangements are a separate matter, as the why remote federal jobs became rare guide explains, so value the pay progression and not the location flexibility when you count security.
Putting it together
Start from the typical advertised figure at the top of the page, or from the grade on a specific announcement run through the GS pay scale guide. Add 5% of pay for the employer TSP contribution, assuming you contribute 5% yourself. Add the government’s FEHB share for the plan and family size you would actually choose. Add a pension allowance that grows with the years you expect to stay. Add the leave and holidays as the days-off value above. Added up, these pieces are a large fraction of base pay, larger with family health coverage and a long career, smaller for a short stay or self-only coverage. That is why a federal offer that looks ten or fifteen percent below a private one can be the richer package.
The caveat
None of this is financial advice for your situation. The pension is worth little to someone who leaves after four years and a great deal to someone who stays thirty. FEHB’s value depends on whether you would otherwise be insured through a spouse. The TSP match is only worth 5% if you contribute 5%. But if you are comparing a federal offer against a higher-base private one and stopping at the salary line, you are almost certainly undervaluing the federal side, and the live figures above give you a real number to start the arithmetic from. The fully remote list and the telework list show which federal postings are open today, each with its advertised pay.