Data coverage and limitations
PublicPay uses one source: the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's public Federal Workforce Data. It is the most complete public record of federal civilian pay, but it is not complete. This page shows exactly what's missing.
What is and isn't covered
- Covered: federal civilian employees reported to OPM's Enterprise Human Resources Integration system, mostly executive-branch agencies.
- Not covered: active-duty military, the U.S. Postal Service, and intelligence agencies such as the CIA do not appear in the file. The legislative branch is absent and the judicial branch is barely represented (164 employees).
- Not covered: state, county, city and school-district employees. PublicPay does not yet include any state or local payroll data. Planned state/local datasets
- Withheld by OPM: pay for 950,354 employees, and duty-station location for 943,611 employees, appear as "REDACTED" in the source file. Withholding is concentrated in defense, law-enforcement and security work.
- No names: the public file has no employee names. PublicPay reports only group statistics and never builds individual records.
Coverage by department
Departments and independent agencies with at least 1,000 employees. "Pay published" counts employees on any schedule whose pay appears in the file.
| Department or agency | Employees | Pay published | Share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | 668,724 | 0 | 0% | Pay withheld |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | 448,850 | 442,172 | 98.5% | Published |
| Department of Homeland Security | 225,910 | 52,424 | 23.2% | Partial |
| Department of Justice | 107,944 | 36,307 | 33.6% | Partial |
| Department of the Treasury | 83,063 | 68,618 | 82.6% | Partial |
| Department of Agriculture | 76,909 | 75,762 | 98.5% | Published |
| Department of Health and Human Services | 72,959 | 71,597 | 98.1% | Published |
| Department of the Interior | 59,498 | 56,696 | 95.3% | Published |
| Department of Transportation | 52,754 | 51,218 | 97.1% | Published |
| Social Security Administration | 49,720 | 49,464 | 99.5% | Published |
| Department of Commerce | 41,300 | 40,560 | 98.2% | Published |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | 17,152 | 17,078 | 99.6% | Published |
| Department of Energy | 13,441 | 11,054 | 82.2% | Partial |
| Environmental Protection Agency | 12,351 | 12,049 | 97.6% | Published |
| Department of State | 11,243 | 10,551 | 93.8% | Published |
| Department of Labor | 11,168 | 10,154 | 90.9% | Published |
| General Services Administration | 8,222 | 8,067 | 98.1% | Published |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | 5,845 | 5,686 | 97.3% | Published |
| Small Business Administration | 4,980 | 4,899 | 98.4% | Published |
| Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation | 4,947 | 4,867 | 98.4% | Published |
| Smithsonian Institution | 4,073 | 4,036 | 99.1% | Published |
| Securities and Exchange Commission | 3,902 | 3,864 | 99% | Published |
| Nuclear Regulatory Commission | 2,444 | 2,153 | 88.1% | Partial |
| National Archives and Records Administration | 2,370 | 2,366 | 99.8% | Published |
| Department of Education | 2,303 | 2,183 | 94.8% | Published |
| Office of Personnel Management | 2,039 | 1,963 | 96.3% | Published |
| Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | 1,693 | 1,605 | 94.8% | Published |
| Government Publishing Office | 1,626 | 1,568 | 96.4% | Published |
| Federal Communications Commission | 1,193 | 1,186 | 99.4% | Published |
| National Science Foundation | 1,135 | 1,120 | 98.7% | Published |
| National Labor Relations Board | 1,124 | 1,106 | 98.4% | Published |
| Federal Reserve System | 1,043 | 1,035 | 99.2% | Published |
| Federal Trade Commission | 1,032 | 989 | 95.8% | Published |
Minimum group size
PublicPay shows a pay statistic only when it rests on at least 30 full-time employees with published pay. Smaller groups show "—". This keeps percentiles stable and avoids revealing any individual's pay through a very small group.
State and local datasets
Many states and cities publish their own payroll data, but definitions, coverage and reuse terms vary widely. PublicPay will add a state or local dataset only after confirming its source, license and definitions, and will label it separately from the federal data. None are included yet.