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The proposal also would require that an employee’s performance rating be above fully successful for advancement to steps 8, 9 or 10. Image: kentoh/Shutterstock.com

The Trump administration has said wants a mix of new incentives and disincentives regarding job performance for federal employees, all of which would require changes in law and most of which have been proposed unsuccessfully in the past.

Sticks

On the stick side, a supplemental budget document says, the administration wants to add one year to the waiting period for advancement up the GS and wage grade system grades—for GS employees, currently one year at each step to advance up to step four, two years to advance up to step 7 and three years to advance up to step 10.

The proposal also would require that an employee’s performance rating be above fully successful for advancement to steps 8, 9 or 10; and “would remove an employee’s right to appeal the agency’s determination that his or her performance does not warrant advancement to the next higher rate within the grade to the Merit Systems Protection Board.”

It meanwhile would extend a within-grade increase waiting period by the amount of time that an employee spends under a performance improvement plan.

“While the current regulations require that an agency withhold a within-grade increase when the employee’s most recent rating of record is below fully successful or equivalent, there is no authority to delay a within-grade increase based on a rating of record of below fully successful that is assigned earlier than the most recently completed appraisal period,” it says.

2020 GS Locality Pay Tables

On the carrot side, the administration is proposing to:

* Create a new “critical skills incentive” of up to 25 percent of pay for positions that an agency determines have “high-demand or shortage skills that serve a critical need.” OPM also could make such a designation government-wide.

* Raise the cap on cash incentive awards from the current $10,000 with OPM approval to $25,0000, and from the current $25,000 with presidential approval to $50,000. The maximums would then be inflation-adjusted each year.

* Raise the cap on “critical position pay” to the level of the salary rate of the Vice President (currently $253,300) from the general cap of Executive Schedule Level II ($197,300) and expand the number of positions eligible for such pay.

MSPB Questions Value of Performance Evaluations

ask.FEDweek.com: Within Grade Increases and Who Gets Them

2022 Federal Employees Handbook