Americans are concerned about the performance of the federal bureaucracy. Many people think that federal workers are overpaid and underworked. Some recent news stories provide fresh input to the debate.
A story yesterday at GovExec.com regards pay and performance. The federal pay structure is less efficient than private pay structures because it is generally based on seniority, not job performance. But GovExec.com finds that attempts to introduce federal performance pay have not worked very well either:
Most federal agencies are not making meaningful distinctions in performance ratings and bonuses for senior executives, according to a new watchdog report. About 85 percent of career senior executives received “outstanding” or “exceeds fully successful” ratings in their performance reviews between fiscal years 2010 and 2013, at the same time that agencies have made smaller distinctions in the amount of individual bonuses, the Government Accountability Office found. This has created a system where nearly everyone is considered outstanding…
The level of federal pay is the focus of another recent story. GovExec.com reports on the large number of workers who enjoy high pay:
More than 16,900 federal employees took home in excess of $200,000 in base salary in 2014, according to a partial database of federal salary data.
The report is based on data from FedSmith.com, which is an excellent source of federal workforce information. Fedsmith’s database can list employees and their salaries by agency. For example, there are 159 people at the Small Business Administration who made more than $150,000 in wages in 2014. That’s 159 too many in my view, as the agency should be closed down.
Another recent article regards federal firing. The Federal Times confirms the extraordinarily low firing rate in the federal government compared to the private sector:
Even as lawmakers press for greater accountability within government, agencies have fired fewer employees than at any time in the last 10 years, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management.
Agencies fired 9,537 federal employees for discipline or performance issues in fiscal 2014, down from 9,634 in 2013 and down from a high of 11,770 in fiscal 2010, according to the data. The firing rate held at 0.46 percent of the workforce in both fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2014 — the lowest rate in 10 years.
The private sector fires nearly six times as many employees — about 3.2 percent — according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and whether the government fires too few people or just not the right people is the subject of continued debate.
For more on the federal workforce, see here.
