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• The Air Force has not yet developed internal standardized written procedures for determining mission critical occupations.
• For several occupations, current Office of Personnel Management classification and/or qualification standards do not reflect the current operational environment or job demands.
• For several occupations, current Air Force pay is significantly lower than that in the private sector. However, there is often substantial variation between the state level and the locality pay area level, which needs to be taken into account when hiring in local labor markets.
• The use of recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives varies across installations, and their use depends on the availability of local base or activity funds.
• The Air Force's use of special salary rates is critical in trying to close the pay gap between the Air Force and the private sector, but statutory pay caps hinder this approach.
• Job vacancy announcements often include boilerplate language, provide wide ranges of pay grades and associated salary levels, and lack mission and culture statements.
• Air Force personnel covered by pay band systems have the potential to receive higher pay, and that might assist in recruiting and retaining mission critical personnel.

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.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Civilian Compensation in the Federal Government

• Chapter Three

  A Comparison of Civilian Benefits: The Federal Government and the Private Sector

• Chapter Four

  Air Force Mission Critical Occupations

• Chapter Five

  Aircraft Operations: Pilots and Simulator Instructors

• Chapter Six

  Air Traffic Control

• Chapter Seven

  Human Resources Management

• Chapter Eight

  Information Technology Management (Cyber)

• Chapter Nine

  Aircraft Mechanic

• Chapter Ten

  Overarching Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Interview Methodology

• Appendix B

  Data Sources for National and Regional Compensation Comparisons and Additional Comparisons with the Federal Aviation Administration

• Appendix C

  An Approach to Reviewing Job Vacancy Announcements

• Appendix D

  Mission Critical Operations Lists Across Various Components

• Appendix E

  Special Rate Tables, 2019

• Appendix F

  The Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Compensation System

• Appendix G

  An Overview of Occupation-Specific Recommendations