OPM gives approval to Bureau of Prisons pay system

The methodology used to set pay for wage-grade employees at the Bureau of Prisons is fair and consistent with private sector rates, according to a new report from the Office of Personnel Management.

In its report, "The Pay of Bureau of Prisons: Federal Wage System Employees," OPM concluded that the current method BOP uses to quantify labor costs is adequate to set pay for jobs at the agency, "even though some jobs at federal prisons may have no exact counterpart in local private industry."

The House Appropriations Committee last year directed OPM to report on the methodology used to set pay for mixed wage grade jobs at the Bureau of Prisons, a Justice Department agency, to ensure the system was accurate.

BOP's wage supervisor (WS) positions are set at a rate of pay at least 30 percent higher than their corresponding nonsupervisory, or wage-grade (WG), positions. For example, WS-10 rates are 30 percent higher than WG-10 rates.

OPM classifies all blue-collar jobs at BOP as wage supervisor positions, even though the positions are not supervisory in the traditional sense, because employees oversee the work of inmates. BOP wage employees, who include cook supervisors and maintenance mechanic supervisors, receive law enforcement training and are considered law enforcement officers for retirement and pay purposes because they deal directly with inmates and help ensure the security of the prison.

The additional security responsibilities of BOP wage-grade employees allow the agency to place them one grade level higher than is normally allowed, giving them 3 percent to 5 percent more pay, depending on where they work, than wage-grade employees at other agencies.

The Defense Department conducts annual wage surveys that compare private sector and federal jobs in each local wage area to determine prevailing pay rates. By law, labor unions participate in the pay-setting process.

"The policy of paying blue-collar federal workers according to local prevailing rates is an equitable policy that ensures these workers receive fair wages, that federal agencies can recruit and retain an effective workforce, and that the government does not lead local labor markets by paying rates to its employees that are higher than local private sector employers can afford," the report said.

But Phil Glover, president of the council of prison locals, American Federation of Government Employees, said BOP pay is still unfair.

"A wage-grade plumber at the WG-8 level in Ft. Bragg, N.C., makes the same amount of money as a wage-grade plumber working in the federal prison in Butner, N.C.," Glover said. Although Glover did not read the OPM report, he said he did not see how the government's pay-setting method properly took into account the additional security responsibilities of BOP wage employees.

A discrepancy in locality pay for wage employees working in the federal prisons in Butner and Beaumont, Texas is also a problem, Glover said. The two prisons are located on county lines, so employees on one side of the prison receive more pay than employees located on the opposite side because of locality pay. The OPM report acknowledged that pay discrepancies may exist as a result of geographic location.

"We are meeting with the federal pay counsel next week to discuss this and other problems," Glover said.

BOP did not seem to have widespread recruitment and retention problems, according to OPM. For all BOP wage positions, the average percentage of employees who have quit their jobs over the last five years was 1.86 percent, less than employees in the federal wage system overall.

But according to Glover, BOP is having retention problems at some facilities, including those in Florence, Colo. and Fairton, N.J. "Recruitment and retention is down in some places because of pay," he said. "It is not easy to recruit plumbers, electricians or welders to come work in a prison. People in these positions have to handle seven or eight inmates, supervise a crew and still do their jobs while teaching prisoners."

OPM recommended that BOP use existing pay flexibilities within the federal wage system, including recruitment and relocation bonuses and special rate authority for certain positions, if the agency experiences recruitment or retention problems in the future.