Federal salaries

The federal civilian workforce, August 2026

2,024,832

Employees

As OPM published them for August 2026. The intelligence community and some Defense positions are not in the file at all.

999,162

With a published salary

49.4% of the workforce. Every pay figure here divides by this.

$110,956

Median salary

Annual rate, over the 999,162 paid per annum. It excludes overtime, awards and bonuses.

957,032

Salary withheld

47.3% of the workforce, under OPM's own release policy.

The middle half of published salaries runs $76,056 to $150,553; a tenth are under $56,715 and a tenth over $192,154.

What stands out

Seven findings. From OPM's Federal Workforce Data for August 2026, each one a row from a query.

• OPM withholds the salary of 957,032 of 2,024,832 federal civilian employees — 47.3% — so every pay figure here is over the 999,162 it publishes and this hub averages. Published pay →

  OPM withholds pay for the Department of Defense, ten security and sensitive agencies and twenty-six sensitive occupational series under its own release policy. The withheld employees are counted here and their pay is not averaged.

• Department of Defense has 680,072 employees and not one published salary. Department of Defense →

  It is the largest single reason the figures above describe about half the workforce rather than all of it.

• The workforce OPM publishes fell 288,730 — 12.5% — between October 2024 and August 2026, from 2,313,562 to 2,024,832. The size of the workforce →

  Not a change in who is redacted: the share with a published salary moved from 51.2% to 49.4% over the same months.

• 954,180 employees — 47.1% — have no published duty station, so a map of federal employment is a map of the rest. Where they work →

  State, county, city, country, metropolitan area and locality pay area are withheld together, for the same employees whose pay is withheld.

• Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest employer in the file with 447,225 employees, 91.3% of them with a published salary. Department of Veterans Affairs →

• The most common federal job is nurse: 106,823 employees, median $124,531 over the 96,821 with a published salary. Nurse →

• 53,054 people work as compliance inspection and support, and OPM publishes none of their salaries. Compliance Inspection and Support →

  A page for the job exists and reports the headcount, because the absence is part of the record rather than a gap in it.

Department of Veterans Affairs employs the most, and four agencies publish no pay at all

The twelve largest agencies in August 2026. “Paid” is how many of an agency’s employees have a published salary, and the median is over those — an agency with none has a headcount and no median, which is the record rather than a gap in it.

The most common federal job is nurse

OPM’s occupational series, the twelve largest in August 2026. Each one has its own page with the spread of what it pays.

47.3% of the workforce has no published salary

OPM’s Public Data Release Policy withholds pay and duty station for the Department of Defense, ten security and sensitive agencies and twenty-six sensitive occupational series. These are the departments it affects most, and the employees are counted in every total on this page.

The workforce, month by month

Where the 1,070,652 with a published duty station work

954,180 employees — 47.1% — have every location field withheld, so this is not a map of the federal workforce and no figure here is a share of it.

Rankings

• Federal agencies by employees
• Federal agencies by average salary
• Federal occupations by employees
• Federal occupations by average salary
• States by federal employees
• States by average federal salary

The Senate payroll, by name

The U.S. Senate publishes its payroll every six months in the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, office by office, with each name as the office’s payroll printed it. Senate payroll, every half-year.

Analysis

Each brief is prose written around values a query returned. Every figure in one is re-checked against its query before it can merge, so a number in the text cannot drift from the data behind it.

• OPM counted 288,730 fewer federal civilian employees in August 2026 than in October 2024

  The Office of Personnel Management's file of the federal civilian workforce counted 2,024,832 employees in August 2026, the newest month it has not flagged as incomplete. The highest in the file, whose series begins in March 2015, was 2,313,562, in October 2024. The difference is 288,730 employees, 12.5% of the highest count.

  Kian O'Connor · October 9, 2026

• Where a published federal salary is highest, by OPM's locality pay area

  Where a federal civilian employee is stationed decides part of what the job pays. The General Schedule adds a locality payment for each of the pay areas OPM defines, and OPM's workforce file records the area of every employee whose duty station it publishes. Across the 58 areas in the month this hub leads with, the median published salary is highest in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, at $154,263 over 191,325 salaries. It is next highest in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, at $138,007. The lowest is Fresno-Madera-Hanford, at $64,239 over 7,518 salaries. Against the national median of $110,956, 20 of the areas are higher.

  American Factbook Research · October 9, 2026

• OPM withholds the salary of nearly half the federal workforce, and not at random

  The Office of Personnel Management's file of the federal civilian workforce holds 2,024,832 employees in the month this hub leads with. It publishes an annual salary for 999,162 of them, 49.3%. For another 68,638 it gives no annual salary and does not mark the pay withheld: they are paid hourly, per diem or on another basis, or have no pay recorded. For the remaining 957,032, 47.3% of the file, where the salary would be it prints the word redacted.

  American Factbook Research · October 9, 2026

• Who the House pays, by the names on its own payroll

  The House of Representatives publishes every payroll line it pays, by the name of the person paid, in its quarterly Statement of Disbursements. Added up by name over the calendar year, the House paid 18,441 printed names $1.05 billion in 2025. The median name was paid $45,756, and one in ten was paid $147,000 or more. 3,847 names were paid $100,000 or more, 1,761 were paid $150,000 or more, and 546 were paid $200,000 or more. The most paid under one name was $282,816.

  American Factbook Research · September 27, 2026