Top salary levels outside the Federal service. -- Act of 1948 (Public Law 900, 80th Cong.) so as to include certain em- Appendix: Inventory of civilian positions with annual salaries of $9,975 or more in Federal executive agencies and certain other agencies, Septem- Table 1. List of top executive and administrative positions (other than the President, Vice President, and Speaker of the House), to which the proposed bill applies, distributed according to proposed rate of pay- Table 2. Number of positions at each proposed salary rate--- Table 3. Present and proposed over-all salary distribution.... Table 4. Comparison (1928-48) of annual salary of heads of executive departments (established at $15,000 in 1925) with annual salaries under the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, for professional, scientific, Table 5. Summary of officers' salaries in 39 private industrial corpora- tions, reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission, 1946-47- Table 6. Range of salaries paid to executives of 11 small companies (1941)_ Table 7. Range of salaries paid to executives of 14 large companies (1941) _ _ Table 8. Salaries of officers of certain industrial corporations, reported to Securities and Exchange Commission, 1946-47. Table 9. Salaries of State officials receiving compensation in excess of Table 10. Salaries of top officials in international organizations... 9 COMPENSATION OF TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS GENERAL STATEMENT The subcommittee unanimously recommends and urges immediate enactment of legislation to revise upward and completely recast the inadequate salary rates for the topmost administrative and executive positions of the Federal Government. This recommendation of the subcommittee has the backing of the President of the United States, the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (the Hoover Commission), the organizations of Federal employees, and, it is believed, the public generally. (It should be noted that the President has not taken a position on that portion of the proposed legislation which provides an increase in his compensation.) The proposed legislation should be enacted before noon of January 20, 1949, to permit the President of the United States to receive a salary increase and to equip him with the tools necessary to start his new administration on a sound-management basis. Briefly the recommended legislation would increase the salary of the President to $100,000 and provide him an additional expense allowance for operating the office of President of $50,000 a year; it would increase the compensation of the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to $30,000 and provide these two officials who head the two component parts of the Congress and who have succession to the Presidency with expense allowances of $10,000 each; it would increase the compensation of the Cabinet to $25,000 and of heads and assistant heads of independent agencies, and members of independent boards and commissions to $22,500, $20,000, and $17,500 in proportion to their responsibilities. A copy of a bill to carry out the subcommittee's recommendations is included as a part of this report. Because early action is imperative, the subcommittee decided to confine the scope of the proposed bill to positions which could be specifically enumerated. These are the President, Vice President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, heads and assistant heads of executive departments and independent agencies, members of independent boards and commissions, and White House officials who are top advisers to the President on policy in their fields. Adherence to this listing avoids the unending confusion and controversy which would ensue from the inclusion of even a few subordinate management positions, such as heads of subordinate bureaus within departments and agencies. There are so many of these that fair and intelligent consideration cannot be given by January 20, 1949. Management positions below the group covered by the proposed bill, as well as top professional and scientific positions, should be compensated through a general legislative schedule which establishes principles and sets standards and rates to be administratively applied in order to determine the rates for individual positions. It is not feasible or administratively sound to enumerate such positions individually in any type of pay legislation. The members of the subcommittee with the endorsement of the President and the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government recommend speedy action at the next session of Congress on the project of revising and modernizing the rest of the salary structure of the Government service. The present salary scale at the very top is obsolete. It fails to accomplish the purpose for which salaries are paid. It is not sufficiently attractive to executives of the high caliber to which the people of the Nation are entitled. It does not serve as an incentive and reward to such officials to remain in the service when faced with tempting financial offers from other employers. These conditions are not new. They have been known for years, but little of a constructive nature has been accomplished. On the contrary, the ignoring of the general problem of top-bracket general pay policy in recent years, the passage of general pay increase legislation which has omitted top-bracket salaries from consideration, and the enactment of specific pay legislation for individual positions or groups on a piecemeal basis have aggravated the problem and have now made prompt action by the Congress imperative. This is an urgent situation. A new administration is about to be inaugurated. With the power of correction in the hands of the Congress, it is unfair to the President to force him to inherit the results of past failures to modernize the top-bracket general-salary policy of the Federal Government. The continuation by the Congress of the existing obsolete, inadequate, and inconsistent top-bracket pay structure of the Federal Government means that on the eve of the inauguration of a newly elected President he is denied one of the most useful tools of administrative management anywhere, namely, a sound balanced salary scale for top executives. The Comptroller General of the United States, Mr. Lindsay C. Warren, testified to the point when he said (hearings,' p. 25): Those who hurl at the President frequent charges that the Government is wasteful, extravagant, or inefficient must themselves share the blame if they deny him the price of the abler tools he needs the better to run the machine. I think this bill goes far-perhaps here and there not far enough-to supply that need. I endorse it wholeheartedly and congratulate you gentlemen for your resolution to do something to remedy a bad situation in our Government. The problem toward which the bill is directed is vital, urgent, and Government-wide. It is that of securing and retaining the services of the most competent officials available, to serve as heads and assistant heads of executive departments and independent agencies and as members of independent boards and commissions. This problem is not new, but under present conditions any period of delay in placing the salaries of top officials at a more reasonable level is a definite handicap to the effective administration of the functions of government. As to the dividends to be secured by a more realistic top pay policy, the Honorable Robert Ramspeck, member of the Federal Personnel Management Task Force of the Hoover Commission, and former 1 U. S. Senate, Compensation of Top Government Officials, hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1948). |