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Return to Article: Senior executives may wait months for new pay rates to kick in

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  Pay compression is no reason to increase the ceiling! The value of the job should determine the pay and the value of the job depends upon the supply of people qualified for the job and the demand for the people qualified for the job! Pay compression should have nothing to do with it. If those at the ceiling deserve better pay, they will leave to get the higher pay - they are not leaving! Therefore, do not raise the ceiling. Freeze the pay of the President and congressional members - maybe that will help to get some turnover in our politicians!

  GovExec.com reader Posted January 13, 2004 7:47 AM
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  I have never seen described in any article about pay compression any mention about the pay cap that federal law enforcement managers are under. GS-14 and 15 federal law enforcement managers are pay capped at the Executive Level V pay level. That means that most of these federal agent managers (especially at the GS 15 level) are prevented from receiving the overtime pay that they earn under the Law Enforcement Availability Pay act (LEAP).

  Unlike state and local law enforcement, Federal law enforcement receive only straight time and not time and a half for overtime. And if you become a manager, it is very likely you will be receiving less than straight time because of the cap. When subordinates receive their 4.1% raise late this month, Federal law enforcement managers will be stuck with the lower raise that the Executive schedule gets. That means the difference between managers and subordinates in federal law enforcement pay will continue to narrow.

  GovExec.com reader Posted January 12, 2004 9:10 AM
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  The new pay rules do allow for increases to the ceiling. However, there are several new authorities that seem potentially negative in return for this potential positive. First of all, pay compression is likely to be most resolved by the fact that the bottom rate for SES was dropped from about 125,000 to about 100,000. So, with the new SES "pay banding" it will be possible to appoint new members of SES at a rate just above the lower steps of a GS-15. (A real disincentive to move from GS-15 pay with less responsibility and risk). Also, in the new authority, the "pay banding" allows for members of SES to have pay reduced (after the first year of the new system) for performance. Also, there is no cost of living raise allowed.

  All of these potential negatives seem reasonable to me since they are performance-based. However, the return in potential reward for these negatives seems small.

  But, the article focuses on the raise in the top with no mention of the reduction in security and loss of any guarantee of pay raises, a one-sided presentation.

  GovExec.com reader Posted January 10, 2004 12:41 PM