While much of the recent report from the National Commission on the Public Service-more commonly called the Volcker Commission-focused on familiar themes of reorganizing agencies, improving management flexibilities and emphasizing pay for performance, one recommendation –abolishing the general schedule-would take pay reform a step farther than previous similar reports on the civil service. Said the report, “a system like the general schedule that emphasizes internal equity in compensation will always demand constant tinkering to define ‘equal work’ so that it can ensure ‘equal pay.'” The report noted that nearly 20 percent of non-postal federal employees now work under other personnel systems, “many of which were enacted by Congress in response to the needs of high-impact agencies.” It recommended a default system in which the 15 pay grades would be consolidated into six to eight bands, with managers given authority to determine individual pay “based on competence and performance.” Certain agencies might want to design different systems, it said, “but that cannot happen until we have seen the last of the general schedule.”