Below Average Compensation Not Automatically Unrealistic; GAO B-413091.4, MicroTechnologies LLC

Protest challenging the agency’s evaluation of the realism of the awardee’s employee compensation plan is denied, where the agency evaluated the ECP against the incumbent’s costs, those of other offerors, and market data and found them realistic; where the agency was not required to evaluate the awardee’s proposed salary and fringe benefit rates separately; and where fact that the awardee’s ECP was slightly below the average market rate did not, in itself, demonstrate the rates were unreasonably low.