Highest Paying Federal Agencies
Federal agencies with the highest average employee salaries (minimum 100 employees).
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management FedScope dataset (June 2026), this ranking draws on 1,953,300 federal civilian employees across 126 agencies and 51 state/DC geographies - see our methodology for how the figures are computed.
National Credit Union Administration leads with $315,000 on the avg salary measure - the median of the 50 ranked agencies is Export-Import Bank of the United States at $155,744.
The ranking in one line
National Credit Union Administration leads at $315,000; the #10 cutoff to make this top-10 chart is $175,560, and Department of Justice anchors #50 of this complete agencies list at $123,744.
- $315,000
- #1 · National Credit Union Administration
- $175,560
- #10 cutoff to make this list
- $123,744
- #50 · bottom of this complete list
- $155,744
- median · Export-Import Bank of the United States
OPM FedScope June 2026. Values are the "Avg Salary" measure for every ranked agency in this extract.
What This Ranking Tells Us
The highest-paying federal agencies tend to employ specialized professionals, financial regulators, patent examiners, intelligence analysts, and senior policy advisors. Independent regulatory agencies (SEC, FDIC, Federal Reserve Board) and intelligence community agencies often pay above the standard GS scale using special pay authorities. Scientific and research agencies also rank high due to the need to compete with private-sector salaries for PhDs and researchers.
What the Ranked Data Shows
This ranking covers 50 federal agencies drawn from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes. The leader is National Credit Union Administration with $315,000 on the "Avg Salary" measure - 2.0× the median agency ($155,744). Federal workforce data of this kind is widely used by USAJOBS applicants, congressional staff, and GAO analysts to understand where federal hiring and compensation are concentrated across the country.
The median agency in this list is Export-Import Bank of the United States at $155,744, illustrating the midpoint of the distribution. At the other end, Department of Justice anchors the bottom of the ranked set with $123,744. The spread between leader and trailing positions is what matters most for policy: it shows how unevenly federal employment, compensation, and tenure are distributed across jurisdictions and departments, and where shifts in locality pay, mission assignments, or hiring freezes would bite hardest.
For job seekers evaluating federal career moves on USAJOBS, these rankings inform strategic choices: a higher-salary state or agency often signals concentrated senior-grade positions, while a large-headcount jurisdiction points to broader entry-level opportunity. Combined with length-of-service patterns, the ranking gives a practical view of where the federal workforce is most durable and where turnover creates openings. Data sourced from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope and refreshed as OPM publishes new semi-annual FedScope releases.
The top 10 federal agencies by avg salary, OPM FedScope.
The bar to make this list
How avg salary is distributed across all 50 agencies - most cluster in the middle, with a long tail at the top. A agency needs about $175,560 to reach the top 10.
Distribution of avg salary across all 50 federal agencies.
Source: Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which federal agency pays the most?
Financial regulatory agencies (FDIC, SEC, Federal Reserve Board, OCC) typically have the highest average salaries due to special pay authorities that allow them to compete with Wall Street compensation. Intelligence community agencies and scientific organizations also pay premium salaries for specialized talent.
Do all federal agencies use the GS pay scale?
No. While most agencies use the General Schedule (GS) pay system, many have alternative pay systems. The Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, SEC, and intelligence agencies use agency-specific scales. Senior Executive Service (SES) members are on a separate pay band. The Veterans Health Administration has its own pay system for physicians and nurses.
Explore More Rankings
Download the 51-jurisdiction duty-station extract: federal-workforce-by-state.csv (same extract as /statistics).
PlainGovJobs is rendered directly from OPM FedScope federal-workforce data, figures are sourced from published program rules and verified against primary sources. The ranking table, chart, and summary line above are computed live from OPM FedScope employment records; the explanatory narrative and FAQ answers are editorial context, not live queries. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of June 2026. OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.