FederalDaily - May 11, 2005
Average Federal Employee Pay
Overall, the average salary—base pay plus locality pay—for full-time
federal employees as of March 2004 was $60,517, according to a new Office of
Personnel Management report. Average salaries by major geographic areas were:
U.S. $60,772; the Washington , D.C. , Maryland , Virginia and West Virginia
area $78,593; foreign countries $54,926; and U.S. territories $44,832. Average
salaries categorized by pay system were: General Schedule $59,593 and Federal
Wage System $42,096. As of March 2004, total federal employment was 1,744,758—down
9,845 from the previous year. The federal workforce distribution was as follows:
General Schedule 1.24 million (or 71.3 percent); Federal Wage System 184,087
(or 10.6 percent); and pay systems under “Other Acts and Administrative
Determination” 316,258 (or 18.1 percent). The OPM report can be found
at: www.opm.gov/feddata/html/paystr.htm.
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DHS Employees Concerned with PFP
According to National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M.
Kelley, employees of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “have
a number of serious concerns about the design and implementation of a pay-for-performance
system.” Kelley said employees and supervisors have voiced their concerns
during a series of DHS employee focus group meetings. Kelley said non-managerial
employees expressed their lack of trust that such a pay system can be administered
fairly; their worry that it won’t be sufficiently funded; the difficulties
in identifying meaningful measures for jobs; and the need for accountability
for supervisors. She added that supervisors and managers had their own concerns.
NTEU represents about 15,000 employees in DHS’ Bureau of Customs and
Border Protection.
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OSC Backs Navy Whistleblower
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) reported on May 9 that a Navy whistleblower’s
allegations were substantiated. The whistleblower, a welder, said unqualified
welders at the Naval Air Depot in North Island, California, had improperly
welded catapult hydraulic piping systems on the Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty
Hawk. The defective welds discovered on the USS Kitty Hawk were similar to
those found on five other aircraft carriers during a prior investigation conducted
in February 2003, in response to similar allegations disclosed by the same
whistleblower, Kristin Shott. OSC concluded that there was a substantial likelihood
that the information Shott had provided disclosed a “substantial and
specific danger to public safety, as well as violations of law, rule or regulation.”
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EEOC Proposes Two New Offices
Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Cari Dominguez,
proposed plans to change EEOC’s field office structure. Under the plan,
two new offices will be opened. Dominguez has called a May 16 EEOC meeting
to vote on the measure. This proposal is the second of three repositioning
efforts. The first involved establishing a National Contact Center, on a pilot
basis. The third phase will involve a more streamlined Washington, D.C., headquarters.
EEOC said all current offices will remain open and new offices will be opened
in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Mobile, Alabama. Further, the agency said no EEOC
employee will lose a job and there will be no reduction in force. EEOC said
part of the plan is to reduce layers of management, so ultimately there will
be an agency-wide ratio of one first-line supervisor for every 10 employees.
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