Performance Pay Provides Rewards, OPM Says

Federal employees who are under pay for performance systems, including demonstration projects and some other special authorities, do see a difference in their pay according to their performance, the Office of Personnel Management has said. In a document prepared in support of its proposal to extend such a system government-wide, OPM said that in the best known of the demonstration projects, the “China Lake” Navy project, there was a 40 percent difference in pay between average and high performers after 10 years. Similarly, it said, in an Air Force laboratory demonstration project, performance accounted for 25 percent of differences in pay after four years. Annual raises for top performers ranged up to 20 percent in demonstration projects, OPM said, noting that some low performers got no annual raises.