Federal employees who serve as medical officers, ship pilots, and general attorneys receive high salaries on average, but their jobs could be jeopardized by President-elect Donald Trump’s new government efficiency plan.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, lead Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a recent editorial piece in The Wall Street Journal, the commission’s two chairmen stated that they intend to reduce government expenditure and head count at federal agencies, implying that government employees face job losses.
Using US Office of Personnel Management data as of March, Business Insider looked at the average salaries of federal civilian employees for all agencies to see who is earning the most on average among hundreds of occupations.
Looking at the average pay of cabinet-level employees regardless of occupation, the Departments of Education and Energy had the highest, with averages exceeding $140,000.
Musk and Ramaswamy floated in the op-ed requiring all federal employees to come into the office five days a week, which may lead to higher voluntary turnover. Office of Personnel Management data showed around 1.3 million federal civilian workers as of March were “eligible to participate in telework,” many of whom were professional and administrative workers.
“DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote.
Musk and Ramaswamy also proposed early retirement and severance payments to incentivize lower headcount, but did not elaborate on the perks they would provide to affected staff.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition, previously told BI when asked about DOGE’s plan for spending cuts. “He will deliver.”
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