Better Bonuses Backed

The Office of Personnel Management has said it supports provisions in a bill (HR-1601) that the House civil service subcommittee hopes to move soon that would improve the recruitment and retention incentive payments that agencies are allowed to offer employees. The measure would boost the maximum payments from the current 25 percent of salary to 50 percent of salary in case of a critical agency need, while making retention bonuses contingent on a service agreement and setting a four-year maximum on the service agreement required of those getting a recruitment bonus. OPM’s statement said the changes “would materially improve our ability to compete for the best and the brightest.” Federal unions said in their statements that while they support improving compensation, such payments are little-used even under current authority, in part because agencies do not have available funds.