Drop General Schedule system by 2009, report says

The federal government should convert its entire personnel structure to a "pay band" system within five years, the National Academy of Public Administration concludes in a new report.

Citing the example of private personnel systems, the study calls on federal officials to move away from the existing 15-level General Schedule, the government's white-collar pay system. The pay band system would provide "a well-established framework for salary systems," the report said.

"The federal government's General Schedule salary system no longer meets federal agency needs and should be replaced," the report stated. "In the private sector, entitlement cultures and across-the-board salary increases are dead. There are no guaranteed salary increases."

Federal officials are implementing personnel systems in the Defense and the Homeland Security departments. Those systems include a number of reforms -- including pay banding and performance-based pay -- that are designed to produce a more agile civilian workforce.

Later this year, DHS officials plan to begin replacing the 55-year-old General Schedule system with 10 to 15 occupational pay clusters centered around similar jobs and salaries with additional adjustments for cost of living. The clusters will include four pay bands: entry level or development, full-performance level, senior expert, and first-level supervisor. The senior expert pay band is designed for experts who deserve promotions but should not be moved into management. The system would include separate clusters for more senior managers.

According to the NAPA report, pay banding will support other human capital efforts, including performance pay initiatives and recruitment and retention goals. The report also said agencies should create positions to support managers.

NAPA called on the Office of Personnel Management to collect and analyze labor market information to support the pay banding system.

"The occupation pay bands would be aligned with the GS grades, but be adjusted over time to reflect market pay trends for specialists in the occupations," the report said.

A number of federal workers unions and lawmakers have expressed concern over pay banding systems. The NAPA report acknowledged that "the switch from the GS to any new salary system will be followed by a period of anxiety and apprehension that is largely unrelated to system design."

A 2002 OPM white paper advocated reforming the GS system. The report argued that the General Schedule pays people based on job descriptions that were appropriate for a workforce of clerks in 1949, but not for today's workforce of highly skilled professionals in a wide range of fields.