The Question: What is the typical performance bonus given to engineers working for the DoD on the ND pay scale (I am referring to both the merit based raises to base salary, as well as the typical one time cash bonuses available)? It would also be nice to know where salaries tend to end up within each pay band, since the range is quite large. But it seems unlikely most agencies would be giving $15-20k raises from performance level to performance level...
Background: I am currently comparing a position on a special pay scale versus one on a DEMO pay scale (ND). The special scale pay offers about $15k more than the base salary of the ND position, with the possibility of signing bonuses that can be substantial.
The ND scale, on the other hand, offers broad pay bands (corresponding to GS 5-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14+, etc) and automatic promotions, year-by-year, to the next performance level, until I cap out at ND-04. After that, it's competitive promotions. This position includes various guaranteed raises at 6 month intervals for the first couple years, as well as merit based raises and cash bonuses.
However, precise salary information is hard to find. Comments I found online, about the similar NT scale (for technicians), suggest that agencies prefer to give small merit based raises year to year, to minimize salary increases, and then use cash bonuses as a supplement. There is virtually no information about how cash bonuses are calculated, or how large a typical bonus might be.
Finally, the federal salary database published by the OMB doesn't include DoD employees, so I can't just look up potential coworkers by name and see what level they're at and how much they made in a given year, and then use that data to extrapolate the likely size of a bonus.
This is extremely frustrating, since it makes comparing the two positions difficult. I was wondering if anyone here knows what a typical bonus for a DoD engineer on the ND scale would look like, so I can intelligently compare the positions.
Edited by user Saturday, August 21, 2021 6:38:21 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified