Higher VA tech, cyber compensation adopted

FedScoop reports that cybersecurity and technology employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs will have their salaries increased by an average of 17% beginning Aug. 4 as part of the agency's efforts to attract more talent from the private sector amid ongoing cybersecurity workforce challenges. Such a compensation increase for IT workers under the Office of Personnel Management's 2210 occupational series is first adopted by the VA following OPM approval last month and comes two years after the agency established a Cybersecurity Service under its Cyber Talent Management System that sought to hire cyber personnel in excepted service roles with different qualification and pay considerations. More than 663,000 cybersecurity job openings across the U.S. private and public sectors have been noted by the Commerce Department-funded website CyberSeek, with the vacancies sought to be filled by the Biden administration's new National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy.