FAA Employees Give Low Marks to Pay System

When you've spent your life under the reliable General Schedule, with its 15 grades and annual pay raises, it's probably difficult to believe that moving to a performance-based pay system will be for the better.

That appears to be the case for many employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, which has five years of experience in running a pay-for-performance system.

Salaries are not the primary issue. Average pay at the FAA exceeds $94,000; even if executives and air traffic controllers are excluded, average pay tops $80,000. For the past five years, FAA raises have outpaced the GS across-the-board raise, according to the agency.

But an FAA survey found that many employees in the agency's pay-for-performance system, known as "core compensation," take issue with it.

When asked how satisfied they were with their pay system, only 38 percent of those respondents covered by the core compensation system gave a favorable opinion, according to the employee attitude survey.

In contrast, the majority of air traffic controllers, who have a union to negotiate their pay, and most employees who remain under the General Schedule were satisfied. Sixty-two percent of controllers held favorable views of their pay system, and 56 percent of GS employees held favorable views, the survey found.

"This is troubling, given that the FAA is transitioning to the [core compensation] system in an effort to become more performance-based," a report on the employee survey said. The report, issued by FAA researchers last month, was based on data collected in 2003.

The FAA experience, hopefully, will serve as a primer for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, which have announced plans to phase in performance-based pay systems. Last year, in comments on a proposed regulation and in feedback sessions, many Homeland Security employees said they would rather remain under the General Schedule, or a modified General Schedule, than take the leap into performance-based pay. Unions at the departments, meanwhile, are wary of giving managers more discretion over pay decisions.

The FAA's research does not completely explain why core compensation employees are less satisfied with their pay system. But the FAA's report offers some reasons, based on employee perceptions:

• Low returns for star performers. The FAA provides a "superior contribution increase," which recognizes individual accomplishments in two tiers, boosting pay by 1.8 percent or by 0.6 percent. (It is paid on top of the "organizational success increase," 3.15 percent this year, and is in addition to an annual "locality pay" adjustment.)

But the size of the individual, performance-based raise, which goes to about 65 percent of core compensation employees, seems to be viewed inside the FAA as paltry recognition for demonstrating increased performance, one employee said.

• Bigger workloads for managers and supervisors, who are responsible for pay decisions and the underlying process of evaluating and rating employees.

• Feelings of unfairness. Core compensation is viewed as cumbersome and hard to grasp. Employees covered by union contracts are treated differently in some circumstances, such as when salary ceilings for job categories are raised.

One other survey finding also may bear on how employees view performance pay. Overall, only 23 percent of respondents expressed trust in FAA management, significantly lower than is typical of private-sector organizations, the report said.

The survey, which was first administered in 1984, also shows that employees gave the agency better marks in some categories than they did in 2000. For example, 81 percent of respondents in 2003 said they were committed to the FAA and its work, up 4 percentage points from 2000, and 71 percent indicated they were satisfied with their jobs, a 3-point improvement.

Marion C. Blakey, who became the FAA administrator in September 2002, has launched an agency-wide plan to address the issues identified by employees. A spokesman said her plans include a renewed effort to clarify performance expectations, explain how organizational goals are tied to pay raises and generally improve internal communications.

"With greater clarity and explanation, we would expect to see satisfaction increase in the next survey," FAA spokesman Greg Martin said. "This is among the administrator's top priorities."

E-mail: barrs@washpost.com