First federal paycheck

I checked the MyPay website for my first federal paycheck. Because I'm used to Army "Leave & Earnings Statements," there were only a few surprises.

1. FERS. The Federal Employees Retirement System takes 4.4% of gross pay, and allows an employee to participate in the GS retirement system. The details are complicated, but a person can retire at age 57 with as little as 10 years of service.
2. Higher vacation accrual. A federal employee would normally start out earning 4 hours of sick leave and 4 hours of vacation every two weeks. After three years, the vacation accrual would go up to 6 hours per two weeks. However, a veteran with three years of deployments is automatically credited with the three years of service to get 6 hours/pay period. So I get the higher rate -- yay for me.
3. "401k" matching. The Army didn't do this while I was in, but now I can get up to a 5% matching contribution. Definitely worthwhile.

So I still have some adjustments to make, but I'm definitely happy to be getting paid again.