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Manning the U.S. Space Force, which was established in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, will require civilians with high-value skill sets. To ensure that it can attract and retain civilian talent for the Space Force, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) needs to understand how DoD civilian compensation compares with that in the private sector. In this report, the authors compare monetary and nonmonetary compensation between the DoD civilian and private sectors, focusing on workforces with high-value skill sets: aerospace engineering and four defense acquisition workforces — business and financial management, program management, procurement, and engineering and science. The authors found that predicted average income among DoD civilians is competitive with or exceeds that in the private sector for three defense acquisition workforces: business and financial management, procurement, and engineering and science. However, DoD civilians in aerospace engineering or defense acquisition program management are predicted to earn less than private-sector workers. The authors also found that DoD civilians with less than a bachelor's degree generally earn more than their private-sector counterparts, whereas DoD civilians with a master's degree or more typically earn less than private-sector workers. Moreover, the authors found that predicted average income among DoD civilians covered by demonstration projects is in line with or even higher than that in the private sector, while the opposite is true for other pay plans, including the standard General Schedule (GS) system. Finally, the authors found that the federal government provides more-generous benefits in some cases and less-generous benefits in others.

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Section 1652 of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) tasks the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to perform a zero-based review (ZBR) - a detailed review rather than a simple comparison with previous size or budget - of its cybersecurity and information technology (IT) workforces. DoD engaged the RAND National Defense Research Institute to produce a process for validating and ensuring the consistency of data and analysis used for its ZBR. The authors organize the NDAA requirements into five themes: current workforce, current work performed, manning and capability gaps, potential barriers to efficiency and effectiveness, and potential future changes in work performed or requirements. Organizations across the four DoD services - the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy - plus the Defense Information Systems Agency were selected to participate in the DoD cyber ZBR. Collectively, the participating organizations reported a total of almost 18,000 cybersecurity and IT personnel, 84 percent of whom are civilians and 16 percent of whom are military personnel. The authors use quantitative and qualitative research methods to analyze multiple data sources, such as DoD workforce data, subject-matter expert interviews with organizational leadership, a work analysis data call, a comparison of DoD and private sector cyber workforces, and a sample of cybersecurity and IT position descriptions. They present key findings, aggregated across the participating organizations and arranged by theme. The ZBR process described in this report constitutes a transparent, repeatable process with which DoD can conduct ZBRs across the DoD cyber enterprise.