Federal employee benefit deduction Forum

[Anonymous User]

I apologize if I wrote this in the wrong sub-section forum.

I will be working as an attorney for a federal agency in a couple weeks, and I am trying to figure out my finances. Does the federal government cover your benefits such as healthcare, retirement, life insurance, etc? Or does it come out of your paycheck?

[clarion]

Depends on where in the Fed you're going, cause idk if the financial regulators, certain Defense departments or USPS do anything differently.

But for the rest of us, a portion of it comes out of your paycheck. You should get the rundown of everything during your orientation, I'm sure. But for healthcare and life insurance you pay a portion out of your paycheck, whereas retirement is more complicated. Some retirement comes out automatically (a relatively small amount) and any potential TSP (think, IRA) has to be elected into. That said, if you contribute 5% of your salary to TSP, it gets matched by the gov automatically and therefore that extra TSP money wouldn't come from you. Anything you contribute beyond 5% isn't matched though.

That's kind of a quick-and-dirty rundown.

[encore1101]

Not a federal employee, but I believe you select the level of health insurance/retirement/life insurance you want. The more comprehensive the health insurance, obviously, the more will be deducted from your paycheck. Likewise, you can elect to contribute nothing into retirement if you choose, or you can elect to pay something

[Anonymous User]

There’s an employee contribution for your benefits. Agencies generally cover 75% of your FEHB (so expect to pay $70-100/pay period for insurance). Also, they’ll deduct 4.4% of your salary towards FERS (your pension). Also, if you contribute to TSP, that’ll be deducted. Basic life insurance is covered at no cost.

I’m an agency attorney.

[Anonymous User]

There’s an employee contribution for your benefits. Agencies generally cover 75% of your FEHB (so expect to pay $70-100/pay period for insurance). Also, they’ll deduct 4.4% of your salary towards FERS (your pension). Also, if you contribute to TSP, that’ll be deducted. Basic life insurance is covered at no cost.

I’m an agency attorney.

This^. Everything you're liable for comes out of your paycheck automatically. The biggest surprise for a lot of people is the 4.4% toward FERS, which really put a damper on when I first got hired. If you stay long term though, the pension is still well worth it.