OPM.GOV APRIL 2018

Senior Executive Service Report 

2017

United StateS Office Of PerSOnnel ManageMent
Senior Executive Service

Fiscal Year 2017 

This document provides a brief summary of federal employees in Senior Executive Service.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Office of Strategy and Innovation

Data Analysis Group
2 

Table of Contents 

Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Data............................................................................................................................................................... 3

Table 1. Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointments......................................................................... 3

Table 2. Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointment Trends .............................................................. 3

Figure 1. Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointment Trends............................................................. 4

Table 3. Senior Executive Service Agency ............................................................................................. 5

Table 4. Senior Executive Service Agency Trends................................................................................. 6

Table 5. Senior Executive Service Age Trends....................................................................................... 6

Figure 2. Senior Executive Service (SES) Age Trends ............................................................................ 7

Table 6. Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender.................................................................................... 7

Table 7. Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender Trends........................................................................ 8

Figure 3. Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender Trends....................................................................... 8

Table 8. Senior Executive Service Ethnicity and Race........................................................................... 9

Table 9. Senior Executive Service (SES) Ethnicity and Race Trends...................................................... 9

Table 10. Senior Executive Service (SES) Education............................................................................10

Table 11. Senior Executive Service (SES) Education Trends ................................................................10

Table 12. Senior Executive Service (SES) Length of Service (LOS) Trends...........................................11

Figure 4. Senior Executive Service (SES) Length of Service (LOS) Trends ...........................................11

Table 13. Senior Executive Service (SES) Salary Trends......................................................................12

Figure 5. Senior Executive Service (SES) Salary Trends.......................................................................12

Table 14. Senior Executive Service (SES) Action Trends .....................................................................13

Figure 6. Senior Executive Service (SES) Action Trends......................................................................13

Additional Details........................................................................................................................................14
3 

Purpose

This document presents an overview of the characteristics of the Senior Executive Service (SES), 

providing the public and analysts access to commonly requested descriptive information. 

This document presents data in the form of tables and charts on the current and historical composition 

of the Senior Executive Service.

Data

Table 1, Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointments, provides counts and percentages of SES 

employees broken down by type of appointment for Fiscal Year 2017. Nearly 93% of SES employees are 

career1

. 

Table 1. Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointments

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017)

APPOINTMENT COUNT PERCENT

UNSPECIFIED 1 0.01

CAREER (SES PERMANENT) 7,349 92.95

NONCAREER (SES PERMANENT) 475 6.01

LIMITED TERM (SES NON-PERMANENT) 80 1.01

LIMITED EMERGENCY (SES NON-PERMANENT) 1 0.01

ALL 7,906 100.00

Table 2, Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointment Trends, provides counts of SES employees for the 

last five Fiscal Years broken down by type of appointment. 

Table 2. Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointment Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

APPOINTMENT FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017

UNSPECIFIED 4 8 6 2 1 

CAREER (SES PERMANENT) 7,190 7,014 7,144 7,341 7,349 

NONCAREER (SES PERMANENT) 625 682 747 736 475 

LIMITED TERM (SES NON-PERMANENT) 93 96 84 89 80 

LIMITED EMERGENCY (SES NON-PERMANENT) 2 2 1 4 1 

ALL 7,914 7,802 7,982 8,172 7,906 

 

1 The SES data in this report includes some SES that are not covered by 5 U.S.C. 3133.
4 

Figure 1, Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointment Trends, is a graphical representation of the totals 

in Table 2. 

Figure 1. Senior Executive Service (SES) Appointment Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

 4,000

 4,500

 5,000

 5,500

 6,000

 6,500

 7,000

 7,500

 8,000

 8,500

FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017

SES Count

Fiscal Year
5 

Table 3, Senior Executive Service (SES) Agency, provides counts and percentages of SES employees by 

agency for all the Cabinet level agencies in Fiscal Year 2017. The table also has a category, “ALL OTHER 

AGENCIES” which contains all non-Cabinet level agencies. The Cabinet level agencies contain over three 

quarters of the SES employees.

Table 3. Senior Executive Service Agency

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017) 

AGENCY COUNT PERCENT

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 80 1.01

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 103 1.30

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 176 2.23

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE 177 2.24

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 185 2.34

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 227 2.87

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 235 2.97

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY 259 3.28

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 318 4.02

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 327 4.14

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 385 4.87

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 404 5.11

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 437 5.53

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 446 5.64

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 447 5.65

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 466 5.89

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 658 8.32

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 822 10.40

ALL OTHER AGENCIES 1,754 22.19

ALL 7,906 100.00
6 

Table 4, Senior Executive Service (SES) Agency Trends, provides counts of SES employees broken down 

by agency for all the Cabinet level agencies for the last five fiscal years. The table also has a category, 

“ALL OTHER AGENCIES” which contains all non-Cabinet level agencies.

Table 4. Senior Executive Service Agency Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017) 

AGENCY FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 80 85 92 86 80 

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 104 110 124 117 103 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 190 183 191 204 176 

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE 176 158 179 182 177 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 169 173 182 200 185 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 221 227 235 231 227 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 256 242 253 258 235 

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY 279 281 271 261 259 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 346 344 357 361 318 

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 316 305 318 326 327 

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 373 373 355 358 385 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 363 384 406 429 404 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 479 464 473 478 437 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 474 464 461 458 446 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 443 420 441 468 447 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 482 462 479 490 466 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 604 598 594 639 658 

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 768 767 786 824 822 

ALL OTHER AGENCIES 1,791 1,762 1,785 1,802 1,754 

ALL 7,914 7,802 7,982 8,172 7,906 

Table 5, Senior Executive Service (SES) Age Trends, lists the age distribution of SES employees for the 

last five fiscal years. In addition to the average, the quartiles are listed in order. For Fiscal Year 

2017(FY2017), at the 25th percentile, 25% of SES employees are younger than 49.8; 75% of SES 

employees are older than 49.8. The interpretation is the same for the median, which is simply the 50th

percentile; for FY2017, 50% of SES employees are younger than 54.8, while 50% of SES employees are 

older than 54.8. For FY2017, the 75th percentile is 59.8; 75% of SES employees are younger than 59.8, 

while 25% of SES employees are older than 59.8.

Table 5. Senior Executive Service Age Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

FISCAL YEAR AVERAGE AGE 25TH PERCENTILE MEDIAN 75TH PERCENTILE

2013 54.2 49.3 54.4 59.4

2014 54.3 49.4 54.5 59.4

2015 54.3 49.4 54.6 59.5

2016 54.3 49.3 54.6 59.6

2017 54.6 49.8 54.8 59.8

Figure 2, Senior Executive Service (SES) Age Trends, is a graphical representation of Table 5. Figure 2 

shows that the age statistics have been slowly increasing over the last five fiscal years.
7 

Figure 2. Senior Executive Service (SES) Age Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

Table 6, Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender, provides counts and percentages of SES employees 

broken down by gender for Fiscal Year 2017. Nearly 66% of SES employees are male.

Table 6. Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Year 2017(FY2017)

GENDER COUNT PERCENT

FEMALE 2,689 34.01

MALE 5,217 65.99

ALL 7,906 100.00

47.0

49.0

51.0

53.0

55.0

57.0

59.0

61.0

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

SES Age

Fiscal Year

AVERAGE AGE

25TH PERCENTILE

MEDIAN

75TH PERCENTILE
8 

Table 7, Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender Trends, provides counts of SES employees for the last five 

fiscal years broken down by gender. 

Table 7. Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

FISCAL YEAR FEMALE MALE ALL 

2013 2,666 5,248 7,914 

2014 2,649 5,153 7,802 

2015 2,750 5,232 7,982 

2016 2,893 5,278 8,172 

2017 2,689 5,217 7,906 

Figure 3, Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender Trends, is a graphical representation of Table 7.

Figure 3. Senior Executive Service (SES) Gender Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

 -

 1,000

 2,000

 3,000

 4,000

 5,000

 6,000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

SES Count

Fiscal Year

FEMALE

MALE
9 

Table 8, Senior Executive Service (SES) Ethnicity and Race, provides counts and percentages of SES 

employees broken down by ethnicity and race for Fiscal Year 2017. 

Table 8. Senior Executive Service Ethnicity and Race

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017) 

ETHNICITY AND RACE COUNT PERCENT

UNSPECIFIED 3 0.04

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & AMERICAN INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE 91 1.15

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & ASIAN 276 3.49

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN 820 10.37

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & NATIVE HAWAIIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 19 0.24

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & WHITE 6,266 79.26

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & OF MORE THAN ONE RACE 67 0.85

HISPANIC/LATINO 227 2.87

HISPANIC/LATINO & AMERICAN INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE 2 0.03

HISPANIC/LATINO & ASIAN 4 0.05

HISPANIC/LATINO & BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN 5 0.06

HISPANIC/LATINO & WHITE 113 1.43

HISPANIC/LATINO & OF MORE THAN ONE RACE 13 0.16

ALL 7,906 100.00

Table 9, Senior Executive Service (SES) Ethnicity and Race Trends, provides counts of SES employees for 

the last five fiscal years broken down by ethnicity and race.

Table 9. Senior Executive Service (SES) Ethnicity and Race Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

ETHNICITY AND RACE FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 

UNSPECIFIED 3 1 1 1 3 

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & AMERICAN INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE 92 90 99 91 91 

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & ASIAN 241 253 260 291 276 

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN 849 859 888 897 820 

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & NATIVE HAWAIIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 10 12 13 18 19 

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & WHITE 6,341 6,193 6,313 6,435 6,266 

NOT HISPANIC/LATINO & OF MORE THAN ONE RACE 55 50 56 62 67 

HISPANIC/LATINO 238 230 230 242 227 

HISPANIC/LATINO & AMERICAN INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE 1 2 1 4 2 

HISPANIC/LATINO & ASIAN 1 2 2 2 4 

HISPANIC/LATINO & BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN 4 6 6 5 5 

HISPANIC/LATINO & NATIVE HAWAIIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 1 - - 1 - 

HISPANIC/LATINO & WHITE 71 95 101 110 113 

HISPANIC/LATINO & OF MORE THAN ONE RACE 7 9 12 13 13 

ALL 7,914 7,802 7,982 8,172 7,906 
10

Table 10, Senior Executive Service (SES) Education, provides counts and percentages of SES employees 

broken down by education levels for Fiscal Year 2017. The education variable in the OPM databases has 

over twenty levels. Table 10 shows a common grouping of those levels. It is important to note that 

education is not an element regularly collected by agencies. Typically, it is recorded at the time of hire 

and updated only at the employees’ initiative thereafter. As a result, OPM education statistics should be 

treated as lower bounds on the true educational attainment of the Federal workforce. 

Table 10. Senior Executive Service (SES) Education

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017) 

EDUCATION COUNT PERCENT

NO HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE 5 0.06

HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE 373 4.72

SOME COLLEGE 226 2.86

TECHNICAL TRAINING 9 0.11

ASSOCIATES DEGREE 30 0.38

COLLEGE DEGREE 1,848 23.37

ADVANCED DEGREE 5,413 68.47

UNKNOWN OR UNSPECIFIED 2 0.03

ALL 7,906 100.00

Table 11, Senior Executive Service (SES) Education Trends, provides counts of SES employees for the last 

five fiscal years broken down by education level. Just as Table 10, the education variable in the OPM 

databases has over twenty levels. Table 11 shows a common grouping of those levels. It is important to 

note that education is not an element regularly collected by agencies. Typically, it is recorded at the 

time of initial hire into the federal Government and only at the employees’ initiative thereafter. As a 

result, OPM education statistics should be treated as lower bounds on the true educational attainment 

of the Federal workforce

Table 11. Senior Executive Service (SES) Education Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

EDUCATION FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017

NO HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE 4 4 2 4 5 

HIGH SCHOOL DEGREE 292 292 308 349 373 

SOME COLLEGE 220 209 213 227 226 

TECHNICAL TRAINING 4 7 8 9 9 

ASSOCIATES DEGREE 35 35 32 29 30 

COLLEGE DEGREE 1,828 1,805 1,851 1,886 1,848 

ADVANCED DEGREE 5,528 5,449 5,567 5,665 5,413 

UNKNOWN OR UNSPECIFIED 3 1 1 3 2 

ALL 7,914 7,802 7,982 8,172 7,906 
11

Table 12, Senior Executive Service (SES) Length of Service (LOS) Trends, lists the LOS distribution of SES 

employees for the last five fiscal years. An employee’s LOS is based on all prior federal service, not just 

their prior SES service. In addition to the average, the quartiles are listed in order. For Fiscal Year 2017 

(FY2017), at the 25th percentile, 25% of SES employees have served less than 13.8 years; 75% of SES 

employees have served more than 13.8 years. The interpretation is the same for the median, which is 

simply the 50th percentile; For FY2017, 50% of SES employees have served less than 24 years, while 50% 

of SES employees have served more than 24 years. For FY2017, the 75th percentile is 30.3; 75% of SES 

employees have served less than 30.3 years, while 25% of SES employees have served more than 30.3 

years.

Table 12. Senior Executive Service (SES) Length of Service (LOS) Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

FISCAL YEAR AVERAGE LOS 25TH PERCENTILE MEDIAN 75TH PERCENTILE

2013 22.0 13.2 23.8 30.2

2014 22.0 12.9 23.8 30.2

2015 21.8 12.6 23.9 30.3

2016 21.8 12.8 23.9 30.3

2017 22.2 13.8 24.0 30.3

Figure 4, Senior Executive Service (SES) Length of Service (LOS) Trends, is a graphical representation of 

Table 12. Figure 4 shows that the LOS statistics are relatively stable over the last five fiscal years with the 

exception of the 25th percentile.

Figure 4. Senior Executive Service (SES) Length of Service (LOS) Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

Table 13. Senior Executive Service (SES) Salary Trends, lists the Salary distribution of SES employees for 

the last five fiscal years. In addition to the average, the quartiles are listed in order. For Fiscal Year 2017 

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

22.0

24.0

26.0

28.0

30.0

32.0

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

SES LOS

Fiscal Year

AVERAGE LOS

25TH PERCENTILE

MEDIAN

75TH PERCENTILE
12

(FY2017), at the 25th percentile, 25% of SES employees earn less than $169,997 a year; 75% of SES 

employees earn more than $169,997 a year. The interpretation is the same for the median, which is 

simply the 50th percentile; for FY2017, 50% of SES employees earn less than $177,400 a year, while 50% 

of SES employees earn more than $177,400 a year. For FY2017, the 75th percentile is $185,100; 75% of 

SES employees earn less than $185,100 a year, while 25% of SES employees earn more than $185,100 a 

year.

Table 13. Senior Executive Service (SES) Salary Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

FISCAL YEAR AVERAGE SALARY 25TH PERCENTILE MEDIAN 75TH PERCENTILE

2013 $ 165,645 $ 159,609 $ 165,300 $ 174,730 

2014 $ 168,214 $ 162,237 $ 168,766 $ 177,023 

2015 $ 170,441 $ 164,430 $ 171,489 $ 179,700 

2016 $ 172,574 $ 166,354 $ 173,882 $ 181,816 

2017 $ 175,902 $ 169,997 $ 177,400 $ 185,100 

Figure 5, Senior Executive Service (SES) Salary Trends, is a graphical representation of Table 13.

Figure 5. Senior Executive Service (SES) Salary Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

 $155,000

 $160,000

 $165,000

 $170,000

 $175,000

 $180,000

 $185,000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

SES Salary

Fiscal Year

AVERAGE SALARY

25TH PERCENTILE

MEDIAN

75TH PERCENTILE
13

Table 14, Senior Executive Service (SES) Action Trends, provides counts of SES employees broken down 

by separations, new hires, and conversions, for the last five fiscal years. Separations represent all 

employees who left the SES at any point in a particular Fiscal Year. New hires represent all employees 

who joined the SES in a particular Fiscal Year. Conversions represent all employees who were converted 

to the SES in a particular Fiscal Year.

Table 14. Senior Executive Service (SES) Action Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

ACTIONS DYNAMICS FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017

SEPARATIONS

QUIT 256 241 229 228 825 

DISCHARGE 7 2 9 2 15 

REDUCTION IN FORCE (RIF) - - - - - 

MISCELLANEOUS TERMINATION 13 9 7 9 19 

RETIREMENT 606 632 573 587 646 

DEATH 12 6 8 8 15 

OTHER SEPARATION 3 - 4 1 1 

NEW HIRES

NEW HIRE - COMP - TEMP/LIMITED APPT 1 - - - - 

NEW HIRE - SES APPT 300 358 387 328 568 

NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED APPOINTMENT - 1 - - 1 

COVERSIONS CONVERSION - EXCEPTED - - 1 - - 

CONVERSION - SES 756 687 898 947 980

Figure 6, Senior Executive Service (SES) Action Trends, is a graphical representation of Table 14.

Figure 6. Senior Executive Service (SES) Action Trends

Statistics restricted to pay plan ES from Fiscal Years 2013 to 2017 (FY2013-FY2017)

 -

 200

 400

 600

 800

 1,000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

SES Count

Fiscal Year

SEPARATIONS

NEW HIRES

COVERSIONS
14

Additional Details

For any data requests, the OPM produces an online data tool, FedScope, which is updated quarterly: 

http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/. Many of the tables and figures above can be replicated in FedScope, 

with the option for much more detail. The tool is best utilized with Internet Explorer. For all other 

inquiries, contact the Data Analysis Group (DAG) at FedStats@opm.gov. 
OSI-03172-04/2018

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Office of Strategy and Innovation 

1900 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20415

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