GAO supports moving forward with appropriate human capital reforms and believes that implementing more market-based and performance-oriented pay systems is both doable and desirable. Importantly, broad-based human capital reform must be part of a broader strategy of change management and performance improvement initiatives and cannot be simply overlaid on existing ineffective performance manageme

GAO discussed the proposed Federal Pay Reform Act of 1990, focusing on the need to reform federal pay-setting principles and processes and restore competition with nonfederal salary rates. GAO found that: (1) noncompetitive salary rates are a major cause of federal recruitment and retention difficulties; (2) unlimited presidential prerogatives over salary schedule adjustments will not provide ade

GAO discussed federal white-collar pay reform. GAO noted that: (1) federal salary comparability with the private sector has eroded because annual federal pay increases have lagged behind the private sector since 1978 and because of geographic variances in average salaries; (2) various federal agencies have suffered personnel retention and constituent service problems because of eroding pay compar

GAO discussed the issue of federal white-collar employee pay reform and the need for employee pay-setting principles and processes. GAO found that: (1) the salary comparability principle adopted in 1962 has been ineffective; (2) increases necessary to maintain comparability with rates paid by nonfederal employers have not been granted for many years; (3) national average nonfederal salary rates u

GAO found that: (1) errors from misinterpreted regulations could be attributed to payroll complexities; (2) errors will be less likely when the Department of Defense (DOD) completes the full automation of its payroll systems; (3) firefighters were undergoing pay reductions due to lost overtime following promotions to supervisory levels; and (4) legislation was needed to entitle supervisors to ove

GAO discussed H.R. 2514, a bill that would amend the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986 to: (1) authorize federal agencies to pay lost earnings to employees' thrift savings accounts caused by employing agencies' administrative errors; and (2) remove restrictions on certain plan participant investments. GAO found that: (1) about 120,000 federal employees covered by two retirement sys

GAO commented on the proposed Federal Pay Reform Act of 1987, which would establish a: (1) 13-member Federal Compensation Board to design, implement, and oversee 5 to 10 demonstration projects for alternative pay and personnel systems, modification of the pay-setting process, and expansion of agency authority to set rates and approve allowances and expenses for certain retiring federal employees;

GAO discussed a proposed federal pay equity study that the Federal Employee Compensation Equity Act of 1987 would require. In a previous report, GAO compared two potential approaches that were used to study the pay equity issue in the federal work force, specifically economic analysis and job content analysis. GAO found that the proposed bill would: (1) utilize both job evaluation and economic an

A review was made of proposed regulations which would implement the Back Pay Act, as amended by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. One significant change in the regulations would result in the burden of proof lying with the employing agency rather than the employee in cases where compensation was denied, withdrawn, or reduced due to an unjustified or unwarranted personnel action. GAO has no ob