More detailed information[]
I'm trying to figure out the best way to incorporate this information and where. The wikipedia defines a "special agent" as "any federal general or criminal investigator in the GS-1801,1810,1811 or FS-2501 job series as so titled according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) handbook". I did some digging and according to fedleo.com, the FBI is specifically the 1811 series of General Schedule (GS) service. That series is involved in Criminal Investigation. To further complicate things, the GS prefix is attached to the rank and step. The FBI starts with Probationary Agents at GS10 step1 (there are 15 grades with 10 steps within the federal government, and FBI starts fairly high). An employee attains Special Agent rank once the probationary period is completed (Note: some sources say that special agent starts when one graduates from the academy, but I am finding some conflicting information on various sites-- perhaps "Probationary" is just an unofficial title). The rank extends from GS10 to GS13.
Many FBI agents do not rise above the GS13 grade. From what I have gathered, after Special Agent rank there is a Senior Special Agent rank. I could not find any information on when the Senior Special Agent rank begins. From what I have read, it is the same job but a higher pay grade but they supervise other agents-- but they are in a lower pay grade than Supervisory Special Agents. The pay scale for the ranks can be found at the official site for the Office of Personnel Management Pay Scale Chart. Since the agents we usually see are at the BAU, the WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE-NORTHERN VIRGINIA Locality Pay (LP) would be applied. Different areas have different locality pay.
The US Federal Government does not pay overtime the same way as the private sector. Employees must work 50 hours a week - that is 10 hours of overtime -every week for an entire month in order to qualify for Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP). It is a flat rate and does not increase no matter how many additional hours an agent puts in. They get paid the same whether they work 50 hours or 60 hours a week. The LEAP is 25% of their current rank and step salary. No agent can make more than $150,500.00 for their annual salary.
Without LEAP (but including Locality Pay for the DC/Virginia area), a GS13 step1 would make about $89,033.00. The high end (GS13 step10) would be $115,742.00 annually. Agents are paid every two weeks. These amounts do not take into account any deductions for retirement, medical insurance, and taxes.
Moving along, I would like to note that there is obviously a difference between the Special Agent rank and the Supervisory Special Agent Rank. Supervisory Special Agent rank starts at GS14 step1. SSA is a competitive job. All actual members of the BAU are at least Supervisory Special Agents. Hotch is the Unit Chief (which is a Supervisory Special Agent, but he is of GS15 rank). Unit Chiefs and Section Chiefs are usually only found at Headquarters Divisions. There are different units of the real BAU and each one has its on chief. The Section Chief (such as Strauss) is in charge of the Unit Chiefs.
According to wikipedia the hierarchy within the FBI field agents (from lowest to highest) goes like this: Probationary Agent Special Agent (SA) Senior Special Agent Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge (ASAC) Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC)
There is another hierarchy for FBI Management-- of which Strauss is a part. The wikipedia entry on the Federal Bureau of Investigation has the organizational information on rank and such.
I'm trying to determine which information is relevant to the Special Agent page and if any new pages should be made for other information. I was thinking that maybe a Supervisory Special Agent page should be separate. Or that all of those ranks should link to a master page that lists the different ranks and explains the differences and such. Perhaps the links could go to a certain spot on a page with the corresponding info? I can't remember what that is called right now. I know it usually has a # in front of it.Suceress (talk) 10:09, January 25, 2013 (UTC)