ASPA Makes Recommendations on Federal Pay

Results of Federally Appointed Task Force Led by ASPA?Members Steve Condrey and Rex Facer Serve as Data for Paper

Washington, DC–ASPA’s National Council has approved a policy paper on strategic federal pay. “Moving Towards a More Strategic Federal Pay Comparability Policy” proposes two recommendations to increase efficiency and effectiveness in compensation systems.

The first recommendation suggests that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) propose to the Administration and Congress that the current practice of allowing for one pay adjustment to the General Schedule system be amended to allow for multiple pay adjustments by grade level. This revision would be theoretically in-line with existing locality pay adjustments and specialty pay rate plans for GS employees. The second recommendation suggests that OPM propose adjustments to the current GS system to increase the salary range within grade levels. Increasing the salary range within the existing system would have the benefit of easing pay compression for highly skilled positions and addressing pay comparability at higher grade levels, while avoiding many of the shortcomings traditionally associated with pay-banding.

Given the role of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as the federal government’s lead human resources management agency, the policy paper is intended to serve as a resource for OPM by critically assessing existing mechanisms for setting General Schedule (GS) pay rates and providing specific policy recommendations on how these mechanisms can be restructured in light of growing calls for more efficient and effective compensation systems.

To review the paper in its entirety visit www.aspanet.org. For more information on ASPA’s Policy Engagement initiative, see article on page 22 of this issue.

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