Lessons on Pay Reforms Cited

By: fedweek

CRS also noted that numerous federal pay reform proposals are circulating, including tying pay more closely to both market conditions and employee performance. CRS said that “several common lessons appear to be emerging” on performance pay, including that agencies need to have structures in place to make sure the reforms are effective and properly implemented, along with concerns about funding for merit pay and a lack of the managerial characteristics needed to make pay for performance work. CRS also said that efforts to link pay more closely to rates for similar jobs in the local economy “have met with less than full success” and that care must be taken in determining the relevant job market for an agency and the relationship of federal occupations to that market.