Department of Veterans Affairs
Headcount, average pay, length of service, sub-agencies, and hiring trends for Department of Veterans Affairs, drawn directly from the OPM Federal Workforce Data (June 2026).
OPM FedScope stock folio
Employment stock June 2026 Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the largest federal employers: 445,351 employees (22.8% of the federal civilian workforce) across 51 states (including DC). At an average salary of $114,508 it pays near the federal average of $117,339, and headcount declined 0.1% from the prior period.
Monthly FedScope employment stock for Department of Veterans Affairs - headcount, pay, tenure, and nearest peer names from the same OPM extract (445,351 employees · $114,508 avg).
- HEAD 445,351
- RANK #1/126
- PAY $114,508
- LOS 11.1 yrs
- SHARE 22.8%
- STATES 51
- NET -882
- SUBS 32
- PHOTO Department of Homeland Secur
- BOOK OPM FWD
Headcount peers
Photo peer: Department of Homeland Security (225,568 employees)
According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Department of Veterans Affairs ranks #1 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 →
Department of Veterans Affairs pay book (lean avg)
Lean-pay strip (445,351 employees · $114,508 avg) vs federal average $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 445,351 of Department of Veterans Affairs's staff assigned to mapped sub-agencies.
- Under $80k: 2,093 (0%)
- $80k–$100k: 31,278 (7%)
- $100k–$120k: 399,970 (90%)
- $120k–$150k: 10,517 (2%)
- $150k+: 1,493 (0%)
Agency Average
$114,508
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-2.4%
Where Department of Veterans Affairs ranks on pay
Ranked by agency (not weighted by headcount), its average salary of $114,508 is higher than 14% of the 121 federal agencies (17 pay less on average). Smaller specialized agencies often post higher per-employee averages than large ones like Department of Veterans Affairs, 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 Veterans Affairs sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 121 federal agencies; Department of Veterans Affairs ranks higher than 14%.
Sub-agency pay span (dense agency)
Under $80K
2,093
$80K–$100K
31,278
$100K–$120K
399,970
$120K–$150K
10,517
Over $150K
1,493
Sub-agencies & Organizational Units
Department of Veterans Affairs has 32 sub-agencies. The highest-paying unit averages $205,330.
| Sub-agency | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veterans Health Administration | 396,770 | $115,301 | 10.7 yrs |
| Veterans Benefits Administration | 29,504 | $95,065 | 13.8 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology | 6,699 | $140,889 | 18 yrs |
| Executive Director, Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction | 3,200 | $113,486 | 15.9 yrs |
| National Cemetery Administration | 2,093 | $79,886 | 12.3 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Finance | 1,568 | $96,269 | 14.3 yrs |
| Board of Veterans Appeals | 1,269 | $147,149 | 12.4 yrs |
| Inspector General | 953 | $150,320 | 18.1 yrs |
| Office of the Secretary | 948 | $140,370 | 17.1 yrs |
| General Counsel | 679 | $142,710 | 15.1 yrs |
| Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management | 291 | $144,753 | 18.6 yrs |
| Chief Human Capital Officer | 260 | $145,392 | 18.7 yrs |
| Vet Customer Exper (vce) | 238 | $130,974 | 16.3 yrs |
| Executive Director for Security and Law Enforcement | 206 | $96,610 | 16.6 yrs |
| Electronic Health Record Modernization | 174 | $158,995 | 15.2 yrs |
| Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection | 120 | $160,409 | 17.2 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration | 50 | $144,457 | 17.8 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs | 43 | $149,591 | 14.1 yrs |
| Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Operations, Security, and Preparedness | 38 | $154,717 | 17.6 yrs |
| Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration | 33 | $150,914 | 17.7 yrs |
| Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs | 28 | $154,528 | 19.9 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget | 27 | $164,237 | 19.4 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs | 26 | $160,726 | 18.2 yrs |
| Executive Director for Identity, Credential, and Accessmanagement | 21 | $127,561 | 18.6 yrs |
| Office of Enterprise Operations | 20 | $161,085 | 21.6 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Corporate Senior Executive Management | 20 | $169,282 | 24.6 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fmbts | 20 | $170,745 | 19.1 yrs |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary for Labor Management Relations | 14 | $178,945 | 22.7 yrs |
| Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology | 12 | $205,330 | 14.7 yrs |
| Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs | 12 | $144,116 | 8.7 yrs |
| Dep Asst SEC for Emergency Mgt & Resilience | 8 | $169,100 | 16.8 yrs |
| Deputy Assistance Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs | 7 | $141,812 | 16.1 yrs |
Geographic Presence
Department of Veterans Affairs has employees in 51 states (including DC). California has the most with 36,300 employees.
| State | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 36,300 | $140,808 | 11.1 yrs |
| Texas | 35,483 | $111,581 | 11.6 yrs |
| Florida | 35,249 | $111,030 | 11.2 yrs |
| Pennsylvania | 17,481 | $109,078 | 11.2 yrs |
| New York | 17,225 | $113,057 | 12 yrs |
| Ohio | 16,886 | $112,448 | 10.7 yrs |
| North Carolina | 16,363 | $113,252 | 10.6 yrs |
| Illinois | 14,418 | $116,252 | 11.2 yrs |
| Georgia | 13,880 | $108,545 | 11.1 yrs |
| Tennessee | 12,952 | $109,789 | 10.9 yrs |
| Virginia | 11,822 | $116,076 | 10.5 yrs |
| Michigan | 11,691 | $110,099 | 9.9 yrs |
| Missouri | 10,761 | $109,349 | 10.8 yrs |
| Arizona | 10,509 | $117,366 | 10.4 yrs |
| Wisconsin | 9,607 | $110,235 | 10.7 yrs |
| Washington | 9,160 | $116,959 | 11.6 yrs |
| Massachusetts | 7,998 | $120,771 | 11.3 yrs |
| South Carolina | 7,855 | $108,803 | 11.2 yrs |
| Minnesota | 7,835 | $112,632 | 11.2 yrs |
| Colorado | 7,558 | $120,745 | 10.9 yrs |
Showing top 20 of 51 states
Workforce Dynamics
Dynamics feed (RSS)Monthly hiring and separation trends. Net change over 12 months: -882.
| Month | Accessions | Separations | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | +3,261 | -3,946 | -685 |
| May 2026 | +162 | -382 | -220 |
| Apr 2026 | +64 | -71 | -7 |
| Mar 2026 | +29 | -22 | +7 |
| Feb 2026 | +15 | -13 | +2 |
| Jan 2026 | +13 | -6 | +7 |
| Dec 2025 | +6 | -7 | -1 |
| Nov 2025 | +10 | -3 | +7 |
| Oct 2025 | +3 | -4 | -1 |
| Sep 2025 | +4 | -2 | +2 |
| Aug 2025 | +3 | -2 | +1 |
| Jul 2025 | +7 | -1 | +6 |
vs Federal Hiring Climate
OPM FedScope dynamics for Jun 2026 — Department of Veterans Affairs against the same-month federal civilian totals (not a forecast).
Agency net (Jun 2026)
-685
+3,261 / −3,946
Federal net (Jun 2026)
+2,416
+15,984 / −13,568
Share of federal accessions
20.40%
Moved against the federal climate this month
Hiring & Separation Reasons
Why employees join and leave Department of Veterans Affairs
Accession Reasons
NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED SERVICE APPOINTMENT
2,841
NEW HIRE - COMPETITIVE SERVICE APPOINTMENT
722
TRANSFER IN - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
40
NEW HIRE - SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE (SES) APPT
2
Separation Reasons
QUIT
1,807
TERMINATION (EXPIRED APPT/OTHER)
1,149
RETIREMENT - VOLUNTARY
1,064
OTHER SEPARATION
265
TRANSFER OUT - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
126
Sub-agencies by average tenure
Agency-wide average length of service is 11.1 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
0
Sub-agency avg 5–10 yrs
12
Sub-agency avg 10–15 yrs
431,259
Sub-agency avg 15–20 yrs
14,026
Sub-agency avg over 20 yrs
54
Similar-Sized Agencies
Federal agencies with a similar workforce size to Department of Veterans Affairs
Showing 6 of 125 other federal agencies.
Department of Homeland Security
Department of the Navy
Department of the Army
Department of the Air Force
Department of Justice
Department of Treasury
Nationwide agencies with similar pay or tenure
Two peer sets for Department of Veterans Affairs on OPM FedScope averages that vary across the full agency corpus, not duty-station geography or sub-agency hierarchy.
Peers near this lean pay band
Nearest agency-wide average salaries ($114,508 here).
Peers near this dense headcount tenure
Nearest agency-wide average length of service (11.1 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 Veterans Affairs'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 Veterans Affairs'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.