Department of the Air Force Civilian Compensation and Benefits: How Five Mission Critical and Hard-to-Fill Occupations Compare to the Private Sector a

The U.S. Department of the Air Force has approximately 200,000 civilian employees working in 600 different occupations and professions. This includes approximately 170,000 appropriated fund civilians and more than 16,000 civilian employees who work in specialized research facilities and laboratories in 22 different locations across the United States. A critical tool in recruiting and retaining top-tier civilian talent is the compensation and benefits package offered. However, a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office found that the competitiveness of federal wages in general varies widely depending on educational attainment. The Air Force Directorate of Civilian Force Management asked Project AIR FORCE to conduct a study to help address concerns regarding the Air Force's ability to compete with private-sector compensation and benefits, particularly for hard-to-fill and mission critical occupations (MCOs). This report documents the constraints the Air Force must operate under in comparison with compensation and benefit structures found in other federal agencies and the private sector. It provides recommendations to improve the competitiveness of Air Force compensation and benefits packages to better recruit and retain top-tier civilian talent. Given the large number of civilian occupations within the Air Force, the authors focus specifically on five occupational fields identified as priorities because they are either designated as mission critical or are particularly hard to fill: Aircraft Operations, Air Traffic Control, Human Resources Management, Information Technology Management (Cyber), and Aircraft Mechanic.