Executive Pay: Highly Variable

With the new performance-based Senior Executive Service pay system, executives who get the same performance ratings are getting very different raises this year, depending on where they work, Federal Times' Tim Kauffman reports today. Outstanding executives at the Education Department, for example, could receive a maximum 10.9 percent pay hike, while Health and Human Services limited its top-ranked executives to 6 percent increases. All 87 executives at Education got at least a 1 percent raise this year, while 15 percent of top managers at Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs departments got nothing--even if they were rated "fully successful" or higher.

Imagine the outcry about this kind of situation if the Bush administration gets its way and performance-based pay is extended across the entire federal workforce.