I was a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who retired from the State Department nine years ago at age 50 and have been receiving a very healthy pension, which is adjusted for inflation, and continued benefits since then and will for the rest of my life. When I retired I was making about $115,000 a year. I am happy with the way I have been compensated and think it is fair. Since only the Federal Government has the authority to conduct foreign relations there are really no jobs in the private sector that are directly comparable to what I did.
As an FSO I was required to go any post in the world no matter how unhealthy or dangerous. I spent two years in Baghdad (1984-86) during the Iran-Iraq war when Baghdad was the target of frequent air raids and Scud missile attacks. Being an FSO requires managerial skills. I was in charge of one of our Consulates in ***an that had a staff of 35 employees. All FSOs are required to attain professional fluency in at least one foreign language which in my case was a very difficult one, ***anese. We are required, in addition to being good negotiators, to have expert analytical skills in economics, commerce and politics and apply them to the country we are assigned to.
The uniqueness quality of the skill sets we were required to have match any job on Wall Street and a number of officers I knew left the Department to accept much higher paying jobs with the private sector. While Federal employees can live comfortably but will never be rich. By law the most senior officers in the State Department are prohibited from receiving a salary higher than a congressman. We are able to earn merit pay for outstanding service, but the State Department is not Goldman Sachs, what we can get only amounts to a one time payment of a few hundred dollars to at most a couple thousand dollars.
We are compensated well but not excessively for the wide range of skills and knowledge we have to have, the long hours we put in and the inherent dangers of the job.
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