Department of Education
Headcount, average pay, length of service, sub-agencies, and hiring trends for Department of Education, drawn directly from the OPM Federal Workforce Data (June 2026).
OPM FedScope stock folio
Employment stock June 2026 Department of Education
Department of Education is a smaller federal agency: 2,279 employees (0.1% of the federal civilian workforce) across 44 states (including DC). At an average salary of $147,639 it pays well above the federal average of $117,339, and headcount grew 0.3% from the prior period.
Monthly FedScope employment stock for Department of Education - headcount, pay, tenure, and nearest peer names from the same OPM extract (2,279 employees · $147,639 avg).
- HEAD 2,279
- RANK #28/126
- PAY $147,639
- LOS 15.1 yrs
- SHARE 0.1%
- STATES 44
- NET +11
- SUBS 18
- PHOTO National Archives and Record
- BOOK OPM FWD
Headcount peers
Photo peer: National Archives and Records Administration (2,349 employees)
According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Department of Education ranks #28 of 126 federal agencies by headcount (the same employee_count ordering as our agencies directory and /rankings/largest-agencies). Peer bars use similar workforce size, not duty-station geography. Corpus placement →
Salary Analysis · Department of Education
How Department of Education pay compares to the federal average of $117,339.
Sub-agencies by average pay band
Employees counted under the sub-agency whose average salary falls in each band, not an individual pay distribution. Covers 2,279 of Department of Education's staff assigned to mapped sub-agencies.
- Under $80k: 31 (1%)
- $120k–$150k: 1,020 (45%)
- $150k+: 1,228 (54%)
Agency Average
$147,639
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+25.8%
Where Department of Education ranks on pay
Ranked by agency (not weighted by headcount), its average salary of $147,639 is higher than 50% of the 121 federal agencies (60 pay less on average). Smaller specialized agencies often post higher per-employee averages than large ones like Department of Education, so this agency-count rank can differ from a comparison to the government-wide, employee-weighted average shown above. The highlighted bar marks where Department of Education sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 121 federal agencies; Department of Education ranks higher than 50%.
Sub-agency pay span (dense agency)
Under $80K
31
$80K–$100K
0
$100K–$120K
0
$120K–$150K
1,020
Over $150K
1,228
Sub-agencies & Organizational Units
Department of Education has 18 sub-agencies. The highest-paying unit averages $214,010.
| Sub-agency | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Student Aid | 771 | $155,124 | 14.8 yrs |
| Office of Finance and Operations | 317 | $149,957 | 17.4 yrs |
| Office for Civil Rights | 300 | $142,436 | 14.9 yrs |
| Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 163 | $136,843 | 14.2 yrs |
| Office of Inspector General | 146 | $155,626 | 19.6 yrs |
| Office of Postsecondary Education | 127 | $120,100 | 14.2 yrs |
| Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 121 | $155,823 | 15.1 yrs |
| Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development | 73 | $166,328 | 16.5 yrs |
| Immediate Office of the Secretary of Education | 59 | $131,472 | 7.5 yrs |
| Office of the General Counsel | 40 | $153,289 | 9.3 yrs |
| National Assessment Governing Board | 31 | $64,067 | 7.4 yrs |
| Institute of Education Sciences | 30 | $162,671 | 12.1 yrs |
| Office of the Duty Secretary of Education | 25 | $155,220 | 19.6 yrs |
| Office of Communications and Outreach | 23 | $140,893 | 13.3 yrs |
| Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs | 21 | $134,807 | 9.1 yrs |
| Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education | 19 | $159,640 | 19.9 yrs |
| Office of the Under Secretary | 10 | $134,206 | 4.6 yrs |
| Office of the Chief Information Officer | 3 | $214,010 | 27.1 yrs |
Geographic Presence
Department of Education has employees in 44 states (including DC). District of Columbia has the most with 1,211 employees.
| State | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 1,211 | $152,223 | 15.4 yrs |
| Maryland | 121 | $149,287 | 18 yrs |
| Georgia | 86 | $136,982 | 14.7 yrs |
| Texas | 86 | $137,686 | 13.5 yrs |
| Virginia | 81 | $151,187 | 14.1 yrs |
| California | 77 | $153,807 | 16 yrs |
| Illinois | 76 | $142,447 | 16.3 yrs |
| Pennsylvania | 58 | $143,146 | 13.3 yrs |
| New York | 54 | $147,462 | 13 yrs |
| Florida | 49 | $132,500 | 10.7 yrs |
| Colorado | 46 | $143,870 | 14.8 yrs |
| Missouri | 29 | $129,850 | 13 yrs |
| Washington | 27 | $144,798 | 15.9 yrs |
| North Carolina | 25 | $134,705 | 10.5 yrs |
| Ohio | 21 | $135,589 | 12.3 yrs |
| Massachusetts | 17 | $152,496 | 11.7 yrs |
| New Jersey | 13 | $139,724 | 13.1 yrs |
| Alabama | 11 | $127,257 | 15.6 yrs |
| Michigan | 9 | $115,958 | 6.3 yrs |
| Louisiana | 8 | $131,937 | 17.4 yrs |
Showing top 20 of 44 states
Workforce Dynamics
Dynamics feed (RSS)Monthly hiring and separation trends. Net change over 5 months: +11.
| Month | Accessions | Separations | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | +28 | -15 | +13 |
| May 2026 | +0 | -4 | -4 |
| Nov 2025 | +1 | -0 | +1 |
| Aug 2025 | +0 | -1 | -1 |
| Oct 2024 | +2 | -0 | +2 |
vs Federal Hiring Climate
OPM FedScope dynamics for Jun 2026 — Department of Education against the same-month federal civilian totals (not a forecast).
Agency net (Jun 2026)
+13
+28 / −15
Federal net (Jun 2026)
+2,416
+15,984 / −13,568
Share of federal accessions
0.18%
Moved with the federal climate this month
Hiring & Separation Reasons
Why employees join and leave Department of Education
Accession Reasons
NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED SERVICE APPOINTMENT
16
NEW HIRE - COMPETITIVE SERVICE APPOINTMENT
15
Separation Reasons
QUIT
6
TRANSFER OUT - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
5
TERMINATION (EXPIRED APPT/OTHER)
4
RETIREMENT - VOLUNTARY
4
RETIREMENT - OTHER
1
Sub-agencies by average tenure
Agency-wide average length of service is 15.1 years. Counts below are employees in sub-agencies whose average tenure falls in each band, not how many individuals have that length of service.
Sub-agency avg under 5 yrs
10
Sub-agency avg 5–10 yrs
151
Sub-agency avg 10–15 yrs
1,414
Sub-agency avg 15–20 yrs
701
Sub-agency avg over 20 yrs
3
Similar-Sized Agencies
Federal agencies with a similar workforce size to Department of Education
Showing 6 of 125 other federal agencies.
National Archives and Records Administration
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of Personnel Management
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Government Publishing Office
Federal Communications Commission
Nationwide agencies with similar pay or tenure
Two peer sets for Department of Education on OPM FedScope averages that vary across the full agency corpus, not duty-station geography or sub-agency hierarchy.
Similar average salary
Nearest agency-wide average salaries ($147,639 here).
Peers near this dense headcount tenure
Nearest agency-wide average length of service (15.1 years here).
How these figures are calculated
The pay percentile above is computed live from PlainGovJobs' own OPM FedScope database, not hand-typed: Department of Education's average salary is ranked against every other federal agency's average salary, agency-by-agency (not weighted by headcount), and the percentile is the share of agencies whose average is strictly lower.
The sub-agency pay-span bars sum each sub-agency's own employee_count into one of five salary bands based on that sub-agency's average salary; the bands add up exactly to Department of Education's total employee count, since every sub-agency is counted in exactly one band.
See the methodology page for the full source-to-page pipeline and refresh cadence.
Data Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope Employment Cubes, June 2026. Federal civilian non-seasonal full-time and part-time employees. Data does not include military personnel, postal workers, or intelligence agency staff. Last updated: 2026-08-11.
Data currency: Employment stock from OPM Federal Workforce Data June 2026 (prior-period deltas vs May 2026); monthly hiring/separations from FWD Dynamics June 2024–June 2026 (filled civilian headcount and flows, not live USAJOBS vacancy listings). State pages sum only duty stations with a disclosed US state/DC code; 898,675 employees have redacted geography in the release and appear in the national total only. Database compiled 2026-08-11. See our methodology § populations for the three windows. Spot a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.