The agency consistently ranks high in assessments of the best places to work in government. Image: Andriy Blokhin/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffIn a report whose message could apply as well at other agencies, the inspector general of the SEC has cautioned that progress the agency has made in recruiting and retaining staff could be put at risk by continuing budgetary “austerity measures” such as cutbacks in incentive payments.
The IG noted that the SEC “employs highly skilled professionals, with specialties sought after in the private sector and by financial regulators. Reduced benefits, and ongoing uncertainty about future reductions, may negatively impact workforce retention and, in the future, recruiting and hiring.”
The agency consistently ranks high in assessments of the best places to work in government, it added, and over the last year succeeded in reducing attrition from 4.7 to 3.4 percent and vacancies from 9.3 to 8 percent. The IG had raised concerns about both rates in last year’s version of the annual report on management challenges the agency faces.
“Personnel costs, however, consume an increasing share of the SEC’s budget, rising from 64 percent in FY 2023 to 70 percent in FY 2024. This stems, in large part, from government-wide salary increases, merit pay raises for SEC staff rated “Accomplished Performers,” and increasing health insurance and other federal benefits costs,” it said.
“To offset its increased payroll costs, the SEC suspended FY 2024 contributions towards employees’ supplemental retirement benefits and assistance through the student loan repayment program. With FY 2025 funding uncertain, the Agency may need to suspend these and other benefits, with final decisions to be made after passage of appropriations laws,” it said.
Without a 2025 budget increase, the agency “may be forced to eliminate additional benefits,” it said, adding somewhat dryly that “the long-term effects on the workforce and on the Agency’s operations are unlikely to be positive.”
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