Pay disparity widespread in FAA’s Air Traffic division, report says

Air Traffic Division employees at the Federal Aviation Administration often earn different salaries while performing the same duties, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General.

Under federal law, the FAA has its own pay system that is separate from the government's General Schedule. A collective bargaining agreement signed in 1998 with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association granted union members a collective $200 million raise over three years, adding as much as $10,000 a year to the salaries of controllers in high-traffic centers.

A similar pay system was designed for managers, supervisors and specialists at FAA headquarters, but the FAA never approved it. Later, the FAA administrator agreed to let field office managers, supervisors and specialists be covered by the new pay system.

Last November, Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Donald Manzullo, D-Ill., called for an investigation of pay parity issues at the FAA after discovering that some senior managers earned less money than the air traffic controllers that they oversee.

FAA's Assistant IG for Auditing, Alexis Stefani, compiled information from FAA headquarters, three regional offices and four field facilities before concluding that the agency's 1998 decision to only allow field office employees to use the new pay system had created inequities in pay within the Air Traffic Division.

"We found numerous instances of employees assigned to similar positions, but receiving significantly different pay. We also found that differences in pay were not based on individuals' experience or qualifications, and were not a reflection of the duties and responsibilities of the position held," the report said.

The differences in pay are exacerbated by FAA policies that allow employees transferring into headquarters and into regional positions to keep their higher salaries, the report found.

Stefani recommended several measures for improving the pay equity issues at the FAA, including evaluating all managers', supervisors' and specialists' positions to make sure that pay bands are aligned with duties and responsibilities. Under pay- banding, occupations generally are divided into career paths with pay set in bands representing such classifications.

"As a results-oriented organization, FAA must identify those positions that are critical to achieving FAA's long-term missions and assign pay bands that reflect their importance to the agency," the report said.

The IG also recommended that the FAA implement policies and procedures to address pay inequities, including increasing or reducing salaries if necessary. In its response to the report, the FAA agreed that pay differences exist and that transfers within the agency did create some "unintended consequences." But agency officials stood behind their decision to use different pay systems for regional offices and headquarters employees.

"It is more appropriate to place Air Traffic regional and headquarters positions in the same pay system as other regional office and headquarters employees, rather than to align them to the pay of controllers in field facilities performing operational duties," the FAA said.

The FAA is required to provide formal written comments, complete with recommendations, to the IG within 30 days.