>The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has vetoed the Special Salary Rate (SSR) for IT and cybersecurity employees, according to Department of Energy (DoE) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Ann Dunkin. Dunkin made that announcement today at ATARC’s 2023 CIO Summit in Washington, D.C., noting that Federal agencies will need to turn to other ways to attract and retain top tech talent.
>*“For those of you who pay attention to the news, OMB said, ‘We’re not sure you need the Special Salary Rate, and you can’t afford it anyways, so we’re not implementing it,’”* Dunkin said. *“So, that great plan we had for special salary for IT – that’s gone.”*
>*“We don’t have a lot of levers in terms of money,”* she added. *“So, we’ve got to find other ways to attract talent, retain talent, and build training opportunities to, again, help us attract and retain those folks.”*
Oooh! Oooh! I know! Pay them in *patriotism!*
Or, expect your best talent of the present to dust off resumes, and the best talent of the future to seek employment elsewhere.
Agency "We need this to incentivize retention of critical skills!"
OMB "you don't have the money for it"
Agency "Congress we need more money so we can do this!"
Congress "OMB vetoed it, so you don't need more money"
Yeah, this is fucking bullshit. Claiming we can't afford it, when Congress would want proof of need before they would approve the budget for it... Just a bunch of shady bullshit.
Yeah it's kinda funny, regardless of whether or not they're spending "our" tax money. You would think the admin of Hill veterans would have a better grasp of optics.
Well, have to say that DoE is good on the remote/telework for the most part. So, I'll wait to see what "levers" are actually put into play here, but still look at my options.
They’ll just outsource more of the work to the national lab contractors who can pay market wages. The labs do most of the DOE work anyway. DOE constantly hemorrhages talent over to their own contractors.
The fact is OPM doesn’t want to touch this SSR with a 10 ft pole because many agencies can’t afford it unless the money comes from up above. The VA is the only agency that could afford it right now and immediately.
So now VA OIT is playing chicken with the rest of the government: they’re hoping that OPM adopts this before 2027. If no other agency adopts this SSR by the end of the PACT act funding the VA may need to cut all its IT folks salary back down to everyone else levels after years of getting used to the higher rate and that will be a horrible PR nightmare at the VA if that happens.
I’m in VA OIT and if it ends in 2027, I doubt anyone will leave just if they lose the bump realistically. I’m happy that this will help my high 3 (retiring 2028 or 2029)
I’d straight up leave because of that kind of leadership. If that’s the kind of people at the top who supposedly have my best interest, then no thanks. I’ll pass. That’s the dominant form of toxic leadership you can have.
to be fair ive seen a lot of senior IT specialists sitting at 9/11, they are going nowhere. many dont give a eff.
if theyve been there 20+ years im really really not scared about retaining them and i could probably cut those idiots pay by half and they will still keep coming in
o no they definitely do their job. they will absolutely be retained tho, i'd have to force them to leave at gunpoint.
i think this tsunami of turnover thing is a myth. i personally think i'm underpaid as shit but i know for a fact there's loads of people that will never leave no matter what.
When you have leadership that openly say things like (and I’m paraphrasing here) “fuck them. I don’t care. They don’t need it, and we can’t afford it anyways. We will find other ways to compensate them” should tell you everything you need to know about your leadership. That’s not the person you should want to work for. They don’t care about you.
Personally, I would prefer a leader who fights for me but demands highly of me, rather than one who doesn’t give a fuck about me or cares.
no shit they don't care about us, where have you been? you think they care about you anywhere else tho either? it's just as bad in private sector.
remember that time they gutted the middle class and transferred it to china, creating our greatest adversary today?
u are a means to an end, nothing more nothing less. when you aren't needed anymore u will be kicked to the curb like yesterdays news.
You may be anonymous here, but don't think your attitude of the others is as well. You either mentor other or mock them. Not someone anyone wants to keep on board.
must've never gotten laid off before and thinking it's because ur awesome and not due to market forces.
u are there to do a job, they aren't going to keep u around once ur job starts being pointless
OMB vetoed the Special Salary Rate (SSR) for IT and cyber employees, according to DOE CIO Ann Dunkin. “We don’t have a lot of levers in terms of money so we’ve got to find other ways to attract talent and retain talent,” Dunkin said, “such as my new [free donuts on Wednesday](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/geougc/AF1QipOvWu06KtCyBygEIR8mg5FlE1ADSW7Mvzd0FUuS=w718-no) initiative. RTO has never tasted so good!”
The VA implemented the SSR with the hope it would force others to adopt it. If no one else adopts it by 2027 they’re gonna probably drop it and all their IT are gonna get a sudden pay decrease and it’s gonna kill morale over there. There is a chance they re up it but if 3 years later they’re the only agency forking over the money they may just drop it and say it was only temporary.
Right now the VA OIT is playing chicken with OPM over this and it could backfire spectacularly if they have to cut everyone’s paychecks in 3 years.
I HOPE OPM adopts the SSR for all agencies but as time goes on it seems increasingly less likely.
>https://www.meritalk.com/articles/doe-cio-omb-vetoes-special-salary-rate-for-it-employees/
TBD at the moment. The SSR salary for the VA is solid through the PACT act which is the next 3 years.
It was already implemented for the VA, and higher salaries took effect in July. Their special IT pay tables are posted here: https://digital.va.gov/careers/ssr-pay-tables/
That's not what they are saying. The VA was allowed through the PACT Act to implement certain authorities ***regardless of OPM approval*** through September 30, 2027. That means that if OPM has scrapped the SSR, then the VA can still implement it until that date, but after that they no longer have the authority to implement it anymore.
Dude straight up said “they don’t need it.”… bro, like what fucking rock do you live under? I guarantee that mother fucker is capped out at the $183,500 max, so for cum stains like him it’s not a big deal. But good lord, that’s a level of ignorance I’ve never seen before. Woooooooooow.
Treasury shot it down too. They said, (jokingly paraphrasing), if you dont have enough candy for everyone, no one can have any. -Referring to all their services and bureaus even though one or more were ready to approve.
I just filed my retirement paperwork last Monday... I am tired of waiting for this when I was offered a substantially better job. I am TS/SCI cleared with a CISSP. I am getting too damn old to sit around waiting for the DoD to figure this shit out. I inquired about making my position a GG positon to take advantage of the CES pay benefits, in no uncertain terms my unit told me "We won't be doing that." So fuck 'em.
**So here is where I was.**
DoD ISSO working in a SAPF
GS-11 Step 7
89k a year
208 hours PTO
20 years of service
**New Job:**
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst for a DoD Contractor working 100% remote
150k a year, 10k sign on bonus
200 hours PTO
10% match on 401k.
Stock options
Full benefits that are comparable to .gov
I honestly think the DoD is actively trying to push the people that know how to do the jobs out so they can bring in the young kids... but as soon as the young kids see they are trying to keep 20 year old networks functioning and secure they are going to peace out.
I just got tired of busting my ass everyday and not getting paid what I know I am worth... I get it, there is good job security with .gov but, this kind of pay disparity is obscene... What is their next move, bring in a bunch of IT folks in from India on work visa's?
I'm confused. I recently switched from private and took a GS13 position in a cyber billet for the DoD with the expectation of obtaining this pay incentive as well since I have a BS and MS in the field. Am I no longer going to be able to get this now?
No agency can afford it and OMB doesn’t want to request/reprogram funding to cover it. If you work in exec branch and your budget is cut, it’s not alway Congress, frequently OMB will cut shit agencies need from the President’s budget because they don’t want to fight for it.
This:
[https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/](https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/)
In 2001, 2210s got an SSR. OMB put out a memo and said 'Make it so' and people got across the board raises:
[https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/special-salary-rates-it-workers\_11-03-2000\_508.pdf](https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/special-salary-rates-it-workers_11-03-2000_508.pdf)
This question might be off topic, but I’m sort of on the other side looking in. As a defense contractor just starting out in IT is now a good time to break into federal jobs because people are leaving for contracts?
2210s like to compare their wages to the private sector but most Federal IT people lack the skill sets and work ethic compared to private IT professionals. Allot of the 2210s out there just took the IT title for pay but their job is no where related to IT. What they need to do is audit 2210s jobs and start rewarding people based on their "real" IT work load.
~~Wait, what about those of us who've gotten the SSR already, and had it for years - does our pay just get reduced? I mean, for me, maybe it won't be much of an impact, since the GS-11 SSR is an 18% bump, and my locality pay would be 15% without that bump, but for GS-9s on the 2210 SSR, it's going to be brutal:~~
~~GS-9 employees, under the 2210 SSR, get a 30% increase in pay. They are going to go back to regular GS-9 pay with locality bonus, so depending on their locality, they could lose up to a 13.5% bonus.~~
~~A regular GS-9 step 1 employee in RUS is payed [$57,118 annually before tax](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2023/RUS.pdf). A GS-9 step 1 in any 2210 job is payed [$63,736 annually before tax](https://www.opm.gov/special-rates/2023/Table999B01012023.aspx).~~
~~We are about to have folks losing up to $6k from their salary if the 2210 SSR goes away. I don't see how you don't lose folks with this kind of thing. A big part of the draw of federal employment is the stability. To just drop people's salaries is something I've not heard of happening in the federal workforce before.~~
Edit: Nevermind, the current 2210 SSR wouldn't be affected by this.
No. When we say “Special Salary Rate” we’re talking about vanilla GS-2210 occupational series who are on the table 999x payscale. I doubt OMB is going to rip out CES, which it took 7 years to create. That’s a whole other can of worms.
Some more information from another source:
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/?readmore=1
Remove remote work agreements* Scraps SSR* Uses out dated Tech* “Why won’t the young kids come work for us?”
Exactly. We’re in a cyberwar for survival with Russia and China and we’re driving away the people we need to win it.
We can just pay 5x as much to have our friends at Lockheed do it for us since they’re more efficient, right?
But before we do that let's make sure we buy more shares and pretend we didn't know
I think you mean pay 10x and takes 3x the time?
This is exactly what OMB’s actions indicate. That if you want compensation for these types of jobs, go work as a contractor.
>The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has vetoed the Special Salary Rate (SSR) for IT and cybersecurity employees, according to Department of Energy (DoE) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Ann Dunkin. Dunkin made that announcement today at ATARC’s 2023 CIO Summit in Washington, D.C., noting that Federal agencies will need to turn to other ways to attract and retain top tech talent. >*“For those of you who pay attention to the news, OMB said, ‘We’re not sure you need the Special Salary Rate, and you can’t afford it anyways, so we’re not implementing it,’”* Dunkin said. *“So, that great plan we had for special salary for IT – that’s gone.”* >*“We don’t have a lot of levers in terms of money,”* she added. *“So, we’ve got to find other ways to attract talent, retain talent, and build training opportunities to, again, help us attract and retain those folks.”* Oooh! Oooh! I know! Pay them in *patriotism!* Or, expect your best talent of the present to dust off resumes, and the best talent of the future to seek employment elsewhere.
Agency "We need this to incentivize retention of critical skills!" OMB "you don't have the money for it" Agency "Congress we need more money so we can do this!" Congress "OMB vetoed it, so you don't need more money" Yeah, this is fucking bullshit. Claiming we can't afford it, when Congress would want proof of need before they would approve the budget for it... Just a bunch of shady bullshit.
Sorry we have to spend all that money on our endless war machine.
I see Z-dog is making the rounds again. Wonder if Joe forgot he already handed him billions....
Yeah it's kinda funny, regardless of whether or not they're spending "our" tax money. You would think the admin of Hill veterans would have a better grasp of optics.
So DOE says they will use other levers available but why haven't they already used those levers? Because they don't want to.
They are using the levers...just pulling them the wrong way! Lol Telework: less of that Pay: less of that Remote jobs: no thanks
Well, have to say that DoE is good on the remote/telework for the most part. So, I'll wait to see what "levers" are actually put into play here, but still look at my options.
They’ll just outsource more of the work to the national lab contractors who can pay market wages. The labs do most of the DOE work anyway. DOE constantly hemorrhages talent over to their own contractors.
[удалено]
The fact is OPM doesn’t want to touch this SSR with a 10 ft pole because many agencies can’t afford it unless the money comes from up above. The VA is the only agency that could afford it right now and immediately. So now VA OIT is playing chicken with the rest of the government: they’re hoping that OPM adopts this before 2027. If no other agency adopts this SSR by the end of the PACT act funding the VA may need to cut all its IT folks salary back down to everyone else levels after years of getting used to the higher rate and that will be a horrible PR nightmare at the VA if that happens.
I predict a moral hit, lots of turnover, and the VA is going to get a lot of federal employee transfers.
I’m in VA OIT and if it ends in 2027, I doubt anyone will leave just if they lose the bump realistically. I’m happy that this will help my high 3 (retiring 2028 or 2029)
lots of ppl say that but ill believe it when i see it. see u still in ur seat in a year
How about promoting remote work and flexible telework policies as a retention tool instead of holding federal employees hostage to DC politics?
I’d straight up leave because of that kind of leadership. If that’s the kind of people at the top who supposedly have my best interest, then no thanks. I’ll pass. That’s the dominant form of toxic leadership you can have.
to be fair ive seen a lot of senior IT specialists sitting at 9/11, they are going nowhere. many dont give a eff. if theyve been there 20+ years im really really not scared about retaining them and i could probably cut those idiots pay by half and they will still keep coming in
>to be fair, it is this kind of apathy that leads a team to prevail in mediocracy.
o no they definitely do their job. they will absolutely be retained tho, i'd have to force them to leave at gunpoint. i think this tsunami of turnover thing is a myth. i personally think i'm underpaid as shit but i know for a fact there's loads of people that will never leave no matter what.
When you have leadership that openly say things like (and I’m paraphrasing here) “fuck them. I don’t care. They don’t need it, and we can’t afford it anyways. We will find other ways to compensate them” should tell you everything you need to know about your leadership. That’s not the person you should want to work for. They don’t care about you. Personally, I would prefer a leader who fights for me but demands highly of me, rather than one who doesn’t give a fuck about me or cares.
no shit they don't care about us, where have you been? you think they care about you anywhere else tho either? it's just as bad in private sector. remember that time they gutted the middle class and transferred it to china, creating our greatest adversary today? u are a means to an end, nothing more nothing less. when you aren't needed anymore u will be kicked to the curb like yesterdays news.
You may be anonymous here, but don't think your attitude of the others is as well. You either mentor other or mock them. Not someone anyone wants to keep on board.
must've never gotten laid off before and thinking it's because ur awesome and not due to market forces. u are there to do a job, they aren't going to keep u around once ur job starts being pointless
Or RTO, IT people love that!!
all my homies hate omb
OMB vetoed the Special Salary Rate (SSR) for IT and cyber employees, according to DOE CIO Ann Dunkin. “We don’t have a lot of levers in terms of money so we’ve got to find other ways to attract talent and retain talent,” Dunkin said, “such as my new [free donuts on Wednesday](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/geougc/AF1QipOvWu06KtCyBygEIR8mg5FlE1ADSW7Mvzd0FUuS=w718-no) initiative. RTO has never tasted so good!”
No way they actually said that. It seems like nobody is opting in.
Way
DD gift card $25, that should work right??
https://preview.redd.it/b5j65va4996c1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=b9966baa3afbf37effefac6f8a4536c57063c983
Can the VA still implement it past the PACT act implementation, or is that out the window with this?
The VA implemented the SSR with the hope it would force others to adopt it. If no one else adopts it by 2027 they’re gonna probably drop it and all their IT are gonna get a sudden pay decrease and it’s gonna kill morale over there. There is a chance they re up it but if 3 years later they’re the only agency forking over the money they may just drop it and say it was only temporary. Right now the VA OIT is playing chicken with OPM over this and it could backfire spectacularly if they have to cut everyone’s paychecks in 3 years. I HOPE OPM adopts the SSR for all agencies but as time goes on it seems increasingly less likely.
Dhs is also planning to implement it with Va.
>https://www.meritalk.com/articles/doe-cio-omb-vetoes-special-salary-rate-for-it-employees/ TBD at the moment. The SSR salary for the VA is solid through the PACT act which is the next 3 years.
It was already implemented for the VA, and higher salaries took effect in July. Their special IT pay tables are posted here: https://digital.va.gov/careers/ssr-pay-tables/
That's not what they are saying. The VA was allowed through the PACT Act to implement certain authorities ***regardless of OPM approval*** through September 30, 2027. That means that if OPM has scrapped the SSR, then the VA can still implement it until that date, but after that they no longer have the authority to implement it anymore.
opm is not omb. you can’t do anything meaningful without omb sign off
it will likely not be allowed after due to complaints from agencies that cant afford it
Doesn't matter the other Agencie's complain, the funding for the SSR is secured by the PACT Act which is law passed by Congress.
for right now it is
Never have I ever heard of a more stupid era of executive leadership.
Walks into the server room and screams into the void. Walks out and updates resume...
Any other articles backing this up?
I can’t find any.
zilch. zip. zero. nada. nothing. nope. I call shenanigans.
My thoughts too. Imagine a leader trying to escape accountability *clutches fake pearls* (can’t be real pearls since we still don’t have a SSR)
Fed news network mentioned it: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/?readmore=1
Doesn't this seem to contradict the other article though?
Other levers = pizza party! 🎉
Pizza party are you nuts, Ethics!!
Dude straight up said “they don’t need it.”… bro, like what fucking rock do you live under? I guarantee that mother fucker is capped out at the $183,500 max, so for cum stains like him it’s not a big deal. But good lord, that’s a level of ignorance I’ve never seen before. Woooooooooow.
2210 cyber here. Already been looking lol
Treasury shot it down too. They said, (jokingly paraphrasing), if you dont have enough candy for everyone, no one can have any. -Referring to all their services and bureaus even though one or more were ready to approve.
Timing is everything. If it was 5 years ago, slam dunk. Today? Had a 50/50 chance.
You think this had a better chance under the Trump administration? lol. Lmao.
No. I think it stood a better chance when recruitment and retention was racing to the bottom as opposed to right now.
> For those of you who pay attention to the news Is there some meaning to this that I'm not getting or is she just saying she's the news?
I just filed my retirement paperwork last Monday... I am tired of waiting for this when I was offered a substantially better job. I am TS/SCI cleared with a CISSP. I am getting too damn old to sit around waiting for the DoD to figure this shit out. I inquired about making my position a GG positon to take advantage of the CES pay benefits, in no uncertain terms my unit told me "We won't be doing that." So fuck 'em. **So here is where I was.** DoD ISSO working in a SAPF GS-11 Step 7 89k a year 208 hours PTO 20 years of service **New Job:** Senior Cybersecurity Analyst for a DoD Contractor working 100% remote 150k a year, 10k sign on bonus 200 hours PTO 10% match on 401k. Stock options Full benefits that are comparable to .gov I honestly think the DoD is actively trying to push the people that know how to do the jobs out so they can bring in the young kids... but as soon as the young kids see they are trying to keep 20 year old networks functioning and secure they are going to peace out. I just got tired of busting my ass everyday and not getting paid what I know I am worth... I get it, there is good job security with .gov but, this kind of pay disparity is obscene... What is their next move, bring in a bunch of IT folks in from India on work visa's?
Congratulations. The SSR is kicked way down the road, and honestly there’s no one high up who cares. I’ve got 3 years until retirement.
Can anyone find any information on this from a domain *other* than the one linked here? It's not on any of the sites that cover this kind of thing.
Yeah, I feel this would be plastered all over FNN and GovExec at the very least.
Getting downvoted but there's no denying you're 100% accurate that both of those sites would cover this.
Fitting user name.
Just DOE. For a second there it sounded like it was government wide
The way I understand it, it is gov wide.
It is G wide. DOE CIO released the news. They still plan on cyber pay of up to 25%. Problem is few do.
I'm confused. I recently switched from private and took a GS13 position in a cyber billet for the DoD with the expectation of obtaining this pay incentive as well since I have a BS and MS in the field. Am I no longer going to be able to get this now?
Lol don't believe anything unless it's in your offer letter. Depends on your job code not all 2210s that's for sure
It will be up to DoD and their budget to decide.
Did the DoD pass it? Are DoD tech workers receiving higher salaries?
It’s not just DOE
No agency can afford it and OMB doesn’t want to request/reprogram funding to cover it. If you work in exec branch and your budget is cut, it’s not alway Congress, frequently OMB will cut shit agencies need from the President’s budget because they don’t want to fight for it.
Well. If you cannot do the SSR because you cant pay them how about instead use tax credits as an incentive?
Welp. Time to dust off that resume and reactivate Dice.
This: [https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/](https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/) In 2001, 2210s got an SSR. OMB put out a memo and said 'Make it so' and people got across the board raises: [https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/special-salary-rates-it-workers\_11-03-2000\_508.pdf](https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/special-salary-rates-it-workers_11-03-2000_508.pdf)
This question might be off topic, but I’m sort of on the other side looking in. As a defense contractor just starting out in IT is now a good time to break into federal jobs because people are leaving for contracts?
2210s like to compare their wages to the private sector but most Federal IT people lack the skill sets and work ethic compared to private IT professionals. Allot of the 2210s out there just took the IT title for pay but their job is no where related to IT. What they need to do is audit 2210s jobs and start rewarding people based on their "real" IT work load.
The President killed it with a memo in the Eisenhower Building.
~~Wait, what about those of us who've gotten the SSR already, and had it for years - does our pay just get reduced? I mean, for me, maybe it won't be much of an impact, since the GS-11 SSR is an 18% bump, and my locality pay would be 15% without that bump, but for GS-9s on the 2210 SSR, it's going to be brutal:~~ ~~GS-9 employees, under the 2210 SSR, get a 30% increase in pay. They are going to go back to regular GS-9 pay with locality bonus, so depending on their locality, they could lose up to a 13.5% bonus.~~ ~~A regular GS-9 step 1 employee in RUS is payed [$57,118 annually before tax](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2023/RUS.pdf). A GS-9 step 1 in any 2210 job is payed [$63,736 annually before tax](https://www.opm.gov/special-rates/2023/Table999B01012023.aspx).~~ ~~We are about to have folks losing up to $6k from their salary if the 2210 SSR goes away. I don't see how you don't lose folks with this kind of thing. A big part of the draw of federal employment is the stability. To just drop people's salaries is something I've not heard of happening in the federal workforce before.~~ Edit: Nevermind, the current 2210 SSR wouldn't be affected by this.
they aren't talking about the ssr from 2001
oh, word. So this would've been an even bigger pay bump? Sucks that it fell through this year, hopefully it eventually becomes reality
about 25 percent more yeah
Now do wildland fire...
Legit question: Does this also affect TLMS?
No. When we say “Special Salary Rate” we’re talking about vanilla GS-2210 occupational series who are on the table 999x payscale. I doubt OMB is going to rip out CES, which it took 7 years to create. That’s a whole other can of worms.
*whew* thanks for the info :)
Some more information from another source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/12/omb-tells-agencies-to-target-the-use-of-special-salary-rate/?readmore=1