Reforms in SES Would Be Broad

Bills recently introduced in Congress (HR-1602 and S-768) carry the potential for significant changes in pay policies for senior executive service members, including a pay-for-performance arrangement that officials consider a possible precedent for applying that concept more widely throughout the federal workforce. The Bush administration earlier proposed similar changes. The measures would replace the current system of six grades with a single pay band, with pay varying between a base amount of 120 percent of the top general schedule rate not including locality pay, and level III of the executive schedule. At current rates, that would be a base pay range of $102,000 to $142,500; the cap for base pay plus locality pay would rise to the executive schedule II rate, now $154,700. The pay ranges now applying result in about two-thirds of SESers being paid the same, the executive level IV cap of $134,000, counting both base and locality pay.