Legal Question in Administrative Law in District of Columbia

Re: Salaries of Federal Employees

It depends. Most elected officials salaries are set by statute. There are various laws about this so there is less obvious self-dealing. Such as where pay raises granted to legislators cannot take effect in the same term in which they are passed.

As to federal employees, there are various boards that have input into this feat. Many of these boards are within the various agencies and they classify the positions by a complicated formula by on a strict set of duties. Another board sets the rates themselves. And yet other organizations have input into things such as locality pay.

Some agencies have separate pay grades and rates which are set by yet other boards.

There is a trend to try get away from the standard GS (General Schedule) system of setting pay rates. The most desired by the agencies currently is a merit based system, but this has many drawbacks because of potential factors affecting the civil service system. There is a lot of thought that a merit based system would be a great way for the parties to politicize positions that are currently based on seniority.

I know it didn't answer your question but I hope that helps.

Regards,

Roger Traversa

email: [email protected]