Legal professionals transitioning from military or government service to civilian employment will have to consider what they want and what they need in a compensation package. In the military, the process is easy—you get paid a specific salary depending on your military rank and years of service. For major benefits, you get access to medical care, receive retirement pay if you serve 20 years, contribute to a thrift savings plan if you want, and get reimbursed for most of the expenses associated with moving between assignments. However, the terms of your salary and benefits are nonnegotiable. When considering civilian employment, including federal civilian positions, the process is much different. There is often room for negotiation on a variety of issues, including compensation, paid time off, healthcare, and retirement. Before you start the process of negotiating for or accepting a new position, be sure to assess whether you are obtaining the best compensation and benefits package for you and your family.
Your specific salary in a potential new job is obviously important, but it is not the only item to consider—you need to examine your entire compensation package which includes both your pay and other benefits. Knowing how to evaluate or compare civilian compensation packages to each other or to your government benefits is not easy, but the information below contains some of the potential components involved that may help you decide what questions to ask during the negotiation process. This information may not answer all your questions, but it should highlight areas to explore to help you prepare for your financial future. Remember, the more information you have before engaging in salary and benefit negotiations with potential employers, the better prepared you will be to consider any reasonable employment offers and to intelligently discuss and meet your compensation needs.
Federal Civilian Positions
Just as in the military, the salary for federal civilian positions is generally decided by the grade at which you are hired and your years of service in that grade. The difference is you can enter federal civilian service at a higher pay grade if you have the requisite qualifications. You can also negotiate your actual salary amount within that grade or within a pay band based on your experience. You do not have to start at an entry level position. Once you accept a position at a certain grade and salary, however, you may have to work for a specific amount of time before you become eligible for pay raises or selection for a higher-level position.
In addition to negotiating aspects of your salary, you may also have input into the rate at which you earn vacation or administrative time off. Some federal agencies allow you to earn time off at a faster rate if you have combat or hazardous duty time in your military record or if you served in certain theaters of operations. Specific details regarding these leave benefits can vary by agency or position so this is research you should do for any federal position you are considering before accepting a position. Once you start working, you often cannot go back to apply for an increased leave benefit.
If you have military service, but not enough to retire from the military, you should be able to apply your military years towards your federal service for retirement purposes. If you retire from the National Guard, you may also be able to apply some of your military service to buy time towards a federal retirement. Details regarding the relationship between military service and federal civilian retirement benefits including service credit, pensions, thrift savings plan investment and transferability, and timeframes for vesting and earning retirement benefits for federal civilian employees are all issues that interested applicants should investigate. Websites you may find helpful to your research include:
- Federal Employees Retirement System
- Military Service Credit for Federal Civilian Retirement Information
- Fedweek: Combining Military and Civilian Service
Nonfederal Civilian Positions
Salary and benefits negotiations for civilian legal positions outside the government are not as structured or restrictive as those inside the government. Salary and benefits options vary from employer to employer and from state to state. While some of the more major benefits listed below may be raised by a potential employer during the negotiation process, you may also be interested in seeing some of the additional benefits you may encounter. Try to have a written offer in hand when negotiating for any compensation package so you have a better idea of what questions to raise and can focus on the pieces most important to you.
The following list of options is not exhaustive and it is not a list of all the benefits you should to expect to receive. It is intended to show you the diversity of benefits available outside the government and to help you identify what may be possible.
Salary
During your job search, you must know the amount of salary you think you need to take care of yourself and your family. You should also try to know about comparable salary data available for the position you are considering in a specific geographic area. Where do you find that salary data? First check if there are any resources available at a nearby installation transition office. You can also explore some of the following websites for more information:
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections (www.bls.gov)
- www.jobstar.org
- www.payscale.com
- www.salary.com
- www.glassdoor.com/salaries
The Compensation Report available through Association TRENDS.
Stock or Bonus Potential
Besides a salary, some employers may offer a signing bonus, annual bonus, incentive pay, or stock option opportunities as part of your compensation package. If these are options for a position you are seeking, you should consider asking about the criteria for earning this benefit (e.g., performance metrics, productivity standards, frequency of availability, timeframes for accomplishment, etc.). More information about these benefits or the tax consequences of them can be found at: