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TOPICS
Pentagon limits executives' pay raises
Pentagon officials are reducing the pool of money available for performance-based awards for senior executives, in a move that has disheartened the advocacy group that represents the executives.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England sent a memorandum in October capping the amount for raises and bonuses at 10 percent of the payroll for Senior Executive Service employees. Officials can raise this to 12 percent if necessary. During the last cycle, the limit was 15 percent. But England said a "significant portion of the performance budget was not spent."
Bert Subrin, agency liaison for the Senior Executives Association, a nonprofit professional association that advocates for members of the SES, said this might have been because the Defense Department failed to receive certification on its executive pay-for-performance system in time for the last round of raises.
Until the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget certify agencies as able to properly assess SES employees under the new evaluation schemes, they cannot give executives achievement-based raises or increase caps on their pay. Congress instituted this requirement when it moved senior executives onto a pay-for-performance scheme in November 2003.
"We were surprised and disappointed that DoD decided to shrink the size of its pay pool," Subrin said. "With this decision, DoD missed an excellent opportunity to allow its executives' compensation to catch up to that enjoyed by their counterparts."
In his memo, England said that since the department's executive performance system has been certified, it now will be able to raise its executive pay cap, which should "help relieve some of the long-standing pay compression for executives who may be at or near the top of the pay range." But he warned that officials "must exercise discipline to avoid a rush to the new pay cap," prompting the decrease in available funds.
Meanwhile, Defense executives are ushering in a series of new performance-based compensation systems for the employees they manage.
The biggest of those -- the National Security Personnel System -- is designed to cover all 700,000 civilian employees at the department. Much of it was delayed by a labor union lawsuit, but the first 11,000 nonbargaining unit employees to enter are receiving their first NSPS paychecks this month.
The first payout will look exactly like it does under the General Schedule, however, with 1.7 percent in across-the-board raises and an average 0.5 percent locality raise. Employees need only be rated above "unacceptable" to receive the raises in this first go-round. The Pentagon also adjusted the ranges of its new pay bands by 1.7 percent.
The new pay ranges are posted on a Defense Department Web site.
COMMENTS
- I think what really takes the cake, and the money too, is the fact that not only do the senior executives, supervisors, and non-bargaining employees under NSPS receive pay raises under NSPS, which can amount to 10 percent or higher, but they also get the same COLA raise that the rest of the bargaining GS employees get. That is a double raise. We the regular GS folks get a measly 1.7 percent raise and the above mentioned are receiving a double dipping. As well, until the NSPS debacle is settled one way or another, I would bet this will be the norm to expect from here on out. Perhaps this may have been a planned NSPS goal to also consider as an alternative to get the upper level management larger pay increases. This is a now a means to provide management the ability to significantly increase their annual raises while the rest of us get crumbs. I say if they, or anyone, are under NSPS then they only deserve what their performance provides and not the congressional COLA in addition to it. DDF Posted January 17, 2007 10:41 PM
- The cat has jumped out of the bag! You thought it was pay for performance but now England is telling you it is no pay for anything! Everyone but Congress seems to have known this and stated it in prior listings. The unions were not fooled and the courts upheld the unions, but the tremendous ego in Defense Department kept NSPS moving ahead without incorporation of anyone’s desires or concerns. Now the political appointees are reducing or at least limiting the amount available for NSPS pay raises and this is just the start! Congress needs to get bad to the "old" civil service system and dump the NSPS program in the trash where it belongs. Civil service has always had pay for performance - what do you think the annual reviews, step increases, cost of living increases and locality pay were all about? Now it all goes into a pool and is awarded at the whim of the managers (military) who want civilian pay money to pay for their new toys, houses and medical care. Congress you have screwed the civil servants in Defense Department royally. Now you are putting contractors under the code of military justice as well. I guess we are headed to a stiff arm salute next. Taxpayer Posted January 10, 2007 6:54 AM
- Oh that's great. The SES gets a 10 percent raise and GS workers get only 1.8 percent. What's wrong with this picture? This is a classic example of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. GovExec.com reader Posted January 10, 2007 7:41 AM
