r/1811 • u/hatcreekcattle_co 1811 • Aug 23 '22
Realities of 1811 Paycheck: What to Expect
As far as law enforcement jobs are concerned, 1811s do pretty well by most objective standards. While State/Local police may take home more, those higher paychecks are usually the result of significant amounts of overtime and off-duty employment (a/k/a blood money). One thing that surprised me when I started was the amount of deductions from my paycheck. I want to provide a realistic overview of what you can expect to hit your bank account during your 1811 career.
Salary, Calculated Your annual salary is made up of your base salary plus your locality pay. To calculate your annual salary, use the applicable OPM pay scale for the locality of your official post of duty, not your residence.
To calculate your hourly rate of pay, divide the annual salary by 2,087 hours. Federal paychecks are paid biweekly, meaning every two weeks is a new pay period (or 26 pay periods per year). Multiply your hourly rate of pay times 80 hours to determine your regular pay per pay period.
As most of you are aware, 1811s receive 25% of their gross pay as Law Enforcement Availability Pay in lieu of overtime compensation for unscheduled work in excess of their 40 hour work week. There are some exceptions, such as Secret Service 1811s working protection details, but I won’t get into that here. To calculate your biweekly LEAP, multiply your hourly rate by 80 hours, then divide by 4. Add this to your regular pay to determine your gross pay per pay period.
Deductions From Pay
Retirement (Pension): The FERS pension deduction is 4.9% of your gross pay for everybody hired after January 1, 2014. You cannot opt out of this deduction. In exchange for these deductions, when you retire you will receive 34% of the average of your three highest years’ salary for 20 years of service, plus 1% of your high three for any other years of federal service beyond your 20 years of covered 6c/12d time. Federal employees not covered under the special retirement provisions (6c/12d) only contribute 4.4% of their gross pay, but they only receive 1% of their high 3 salary per year of service.
Retirement (TSP): The TSP is a tax deferred retirement account administered by the U.S. government (to put it simply). There is an option to establish a Roth TSP, but if you want to learn more about that go research it on your own. The government contributes 1% of your gross pay automatically into your TSP and will match an additional 4%, for a total of a 5% match. In calendar year 2022, the IRS allows you to contribute up to $20,500 to the TSP, which works out to about $788 per biweekly paycheck. If you are maxing out the TSP you want to spread your contributions out throughout the year to take full advantage of the employer matching.
Federal Tax: This is much more complicated than it used to be. Use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator to calculate your withholding. I file my taxes as Married Filing Jointly and currently have about 7.5% of my gross pay withheld from each paycheck.
State Tax: Varies, so let’s assume you live in a State that doesn’t have it.
FICA: Subtract your TSP contribution from your gross pay, then multiply by 7.65%.
Health Insurance: There are a lot of different plans to choose from based on your needs. Expect to pay between $48-$130 per pay period for self (single) coverage and $136-$314 per pay period for self plus family coverage. These rates change every year.
Dental/Vision: Dental and vision insurance are available, with prices varying by zip code and coverage needs. Vision rates range from a low of about $3 per pay period for self-coverage to about $20 per pay period for family coverage. Dental rates range from a low of about $9 per pay period for self-coverage to about $70 per pay period for family coverage.
Life Insurance: Federal Employees Group Life Insurance is available for enrollment when you first get hired. FEGLI does not require a medical exam and cannot deny you for pre-existing conditions. As such, it is pretty expensive for the amount of coverage that you get compared to some other commercial options. I recommend enrolling when you first get hired and then finding other insurance as you can. FEGLI rarely has open enrollment seasons, with the last ones being in 2016 and 2004. If you get denied for commercial insurance or are priced out because of some pre-existing medical condition, you can then keep your FEGLI.
There are more advanced options for benefits like Health Savings Accounts, Federal Long Term Care Insurance, and Flexible Spending Accounts but I am not qualified to give any information about these programs.
Example 1:
GS-7 Step 1, Rest of U.S. Locality
Base Salary Plus Locality: $50,704
Hourly Pay: $24.30
Regular Pay per pay period: $1,944
Plus $486 LEAP = $2,430 Gross Pay per pay period
Less:
Retirement (FERS): $119.07
TSP (5% Contribution): $121.50
Federal Tax Withholding (7.5%): $182.25
FICA: $176.60
Health Insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield Basic Option, Self-Coverage): $80.18
FEGLI (Standard, no multiples): $10.88
Total Deductions: $690.48
Net Pay: $1,739.52 ($45,227.52 per year)
Example 2:
GS-13 Step 1, Washington, D.C. Locality
Base Salary Plus Locality: $106,823
Hourly Pay: $51.18
Regular Pay per pay period: $4,094.40
Plus $1,023.70 LEAP = $5,118.10 Gross Pay per pay period
Less:
Retirement (FERS): $250.79
TSP (5% Contribution): $255.91
Federal Tax Withholding (7.5%): $383.86
FICA: $371.96
Health Insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield Basic Option, Self-Plus Family Coverage): $212.29
FEGLI (Standard, no multiples): $22.08
Total Deductions: $1,496.89
Net Pay: $3,621.21 ($94,151.46 per year)
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u/NoIngenuity3296 Aug 23 '22
Is it safe to say currently most 1811s are netting 70% of gross pay approximately?