Pay Gap Called Prime Reform Issue

In the wake of an Office of Personnel Management “white paper” on the federal pay system, federal employee organizations and some civil service leaders in Congress have said that before undertaking the difficult task of reform, the government should address the pay gap with private industry. By some accountings, that gap is still about the same size-around 32 percent, on average-that was reported during the last federal pay reform effort, which led to passage of a reform law in 1990. Under that law’s terms, the pay gap was supposed to be virtually closed by now, they note. “Fashioning a new system without a commitment to fund it will be a huge waste of time and effort,” said National Treasury Employees Union president Colleen Kelley. Said Bobby Harnage, American Federation of Government Employees president, “Federal pay is too low. That is the problem with the federal pay system, and more funding is the solution to that problem.”