range from $10,850 to $12,850, as contrasted to the salary of $10,330 for the superior positions of the four Assistant Postmasters General. A comprehensive revision of rates for heads and assistant heads of departments and agencies is long overdue. Congress has, on a piecemeal basis, increased salary rates above previous traditional levels for top administrative, executive, scientific, and professional positions. Such action has made obvious the necessity of adjusting, on a more comprehensive basis, the rates proposed to be increased by the bill. Examples of significant action are as follows:

Public Law 293, Seventy-ninth Congress, January 3, 1946, established a Department of Medicine and Surgery in the Veterans' Administration. This act fixed a salary of $12,000 a year for the Chief Medical Director; $11,500 a year for the Deputy Medical Director; and $11,000 a year for not to exceed eight Assistant Medical Directors. The statute also authorized a ceiling of $11,000 for medical or surgical specialists. At the same time, the existing salary of $12,000 for the responsibility of administering all of the programs and activities of the Veterans' Administration, vested in the position of Veterans' Administrator, remained unchanged.

Thus, to the pointed contrast of the high responsibilities of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs with his low salary rate, made by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget (hearings, p. 7), may be added the fact that almost 3 years ago Congress fixed the same salary, $12,000, for the Chief Medical Director of the Veterans' Administration, and $11,500 for the Deputy Medical Director. At the same time, it authorized compensation as high as $11,000 a year for medical or surgical specialists. Clearly, if these rates are sound-and they are certainly on the low side-the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, who is responsible for the proper conduct of all programs of the Veterans' Administration, should be compensated at a rate considera, ly in excess of $12,000 a year.

Public Law 567, Seventy-ninth Congress, July 31, 1946, increased the salaries of the Federal judiciary. For example, it raised the salaries of district judges from $10,000 to $15,000; judges of the circuit courts of appeal from $12,500 to $17,500; the Chief Justice of the United States from $20,000 to $25,500; and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States from $20,000 to $25,000. At the same time, no change was made in the salaries of $15,000 for the Attorney General, and $10,000 for the Solicitor General of the United States, the assistant to the Attorney General, and the Assistant Attorneys General. In the Senate report (No. 1631) accompanying this bill, the Committee on the Judiciary pointed out that adequate salaries are a necessary part of any plan to keep competent men in the courts.

Public Law 601, Seventy-ninth Congress, August 2, 1946, the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, increased the pay of Members of Congress from $10,000 to $12,500 and provided a $2,500 tax-free expense allowance. In the Senate report (No. 1400) accompanying this bill, the committee pointed out that steps could be taken by Congress itself to attract even abler persons to the legislative service. One such step, the committee said, would be to pay higher salaries to Senators and Representatives.

Public Law 724, Seventy-ninth Congress, August 13, 1946, the Foreign Service Act of 1946, raised the maximum salary for ambassadors

from $17,500 to $25,000; for Foreign Service officers from $10,000 to $13,500; and for Foreign Service staff officers and employees from $7,102.20 to $10,000. At the same time, no change was made in the $15,000 salary of the Secretary of State, the $12,000 and $10,000 salaries of the two Under Secretaries, or the $10,000 salaries of the Assistant Secretaries of State. In reporting this bill to the House, the Foreign Affairs Committee stated (H. Rept. No. 2508, p. 2) that "compensation should be sufficient to attract able men regardless of the possession of private means."

The salary scale for ambassadors thus begins at $17,500, which is $2,500 more than the salary of the Secretary of State, and ends at $25,000, which is $10,000 more than the Government's apparent appraisal of the responsibilities for managing the entire Department.

Public Law 313, Eightieth Congress, August 1, 1947, as amended by Public Law 758, June 24, 1948, authorized the creation of 45 positions in the professional and scientific service in the National Military Establishment, the rate of compensation for which would be not less than $10,000 or more than $15,000 a year. Several of such positions are now compensated at $15,000 a year, the same rate as that of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Air Force, or the head of any other executive department.

Public Law 304, Seventy-ninth Congress, February 20, 1946 (Employment Act of 1946).-This act fixed the salary of the three members of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President at $15,000 per

annum.

Public Law 490, Seventy-ninth Congress, July 6, 1946.-This act authorized a salary of $14,000 per annum for the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for the duration of the present incumbency.

Public Law 585, Seventy-ninth Congress, August 1, 1946 (Atomic Energy Act of 1946).-This statute established a salary of $17,500 a year for the Chairman of the Commission; $15,000 a year for each member of the Commission and the general manager; and $14,000 a year for each of the directors of the four divisions. In the Senate report (No. 1211) accompanying this bill, the committee pointed out (p. 11) that salaries of $17,500 for the Chairman and $15,000 for other Commissioners "indicate that the duties and responsibilities of these positions are comparable to those on the highest level of Government administration."

Public Law 101, Eightieth Congress, June 23, 1947 (Labor Management Relations Act).-This statute fixed a salary of $12,000 per annum for the five members and the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, and for the Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Public Law 163, Eightieth Congress, July 7, 1947 (Teachers Salary Act of 1947). This statute fixed the salary of the Superintendent of Schools of the District of Columbia at $14,000 per annum.

Public Law 253, Eightieth Congress, July 26, 1947 (National Security Act of 1947).-This statute established $14,000 per annum as the salary for the Director, Central Intelligence Agency; Chairman, National Security Resources Board; Chairman, Munitions Board; and Chairman, Research and Development Board. At the same time,

it reestablished the 23-year-old salary level of $15,000 a year in the case of the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force; and the traditional level of $10,000 per annum for the Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries in the National Military Establishment and for three special assistants to the Secretary of Defense.

Public Law 472, Eightieth Congress, April 3, 1948 (Foreign Assistance Act of 1948).-This act fixed $20,000 per annum as the salary of the Administrator for Economic Cooperation; and $17,500 as the salary of the Deputy Administrator. It also authorized 25 positions to be established by the Administrator, at salary rates between $10,000 and $15,000.

Public Law 901, Eightieth Congress, August 10, 1948 (Housing Act of 1948). This act fixed the salary of the Housing and Home Finance Administrator at $16,500 per annum and of the Public Housing Administrator, the Federal Housing Administrator, and the three members of the Home Loan Bank Board at $15,000 per annum.

RELATION BETWEEN TOP AND OTHER RATES WITHIN THE SERVICE

Under the Government's present salary scales, the differential between the lowest and the highest brackets falls far short of recognizing the degree of responsibility vested in department and agency heads. A stenographer may enter the service directly from business school at a salary of $2,284 a year. An engineering or scientific graduate may enter directly from college or university at $2,974.80 a year. A mature, experienced, highly skilled administrator or professional man being considered for a member of a board or commission or for a Cabinet post, may be somewhat taken aback when he learns that he can be offered only from 4.4 to 6.5 times as much as a business or high-school graduate and only from 3.4 to 5 times as much as an inexperienced college graduate. He may understandably wonder about the Government's own appraisal of the relative importance and responsibility of the office he is asked to accept.

Failure to maintain logical differentials between the floor and ceiling of the Government's salary schedules has been the result of salary revision programs in which little attention has been given to the upper brackets. Numerous illustrations can be given.

For example, in 1925, when the present salary rate of $15,000 for heads of executive departments was established, the entrance salary of a postal clerk or carrier in a first- or second-class office was set by statute at $1,700. This is a ratio of 8.8 as between the minimum salary of the clerk or carrier and that of the Postmaster General. In 1948 the salary of the Postmaster General is still $15,000, while the entrance salary of the postal clerk or carrier has advanced to $2,550 per annum. The ratio has dropped to 5.9.

In agencies that have wage-board occupations paid at prevailing rates, parallel illustrations of undue rate compressions may be cited. For example, the present rate of the Public Printer is $10,330 per annum. A rate of $10,000 was fixed by Congress in 1928 and was not changed until it was increased by $330 under Public Law 900, Eightieth Congress. By virtue of a recent wage revision under the negotiating provisions of the Kiess Act, the basic hourly rate for

journeymen in the Composing Division of the Government Printing Office is $2.38. This is equivalent to an annual straight-time rate (2,080 hours) of $4,950.40. Thus the Public Printer receives pay at a basic rate only a little more than twice that of a journeyman printer. The following table shows the same tendency. For illustrative purposes, the table compares, for the last 20 years, a Cabinet officer's salary with the adult minimum rate, average rate, and maximum rate of the Classification Act. It shows that in the last 20 years the ratio between a Cabinet officer's salary and that of an elevator operator or a manual office laborer, for instance, has decreased from 14.7 to 7.4.

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, technical, administrative, and office employees generally

Arthur S. Flemming, president, Ohio Wesleyan University; member of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government; and former Commissioner, United States Civil Service Commission, referred to this situation, in his testimony (hearings, p. 65):

Twenty years ago, in 1928, the $15,000 rate paid to heads of departments was seven and a half times the average Classification Act salary.

In 1948, it was only 41⁄2 times the average Classification Act salary; or, to put it another way, in 1928 the Government said that a Cabinet officer's responsibilities were worth 15 times those of a manual office laborer. Twenty years later, the Government is saying they are worth only 7 times as much, notwithstanding the fact that the duties and responsibiilties which are placed on the average Cabinet officer today are far greater than the duties and responsibilities which rested on his shoulders 20 years ago.

The foregoing table shows also that, during the last 20 years, Cabinet officers' salaries have remained static while the minimum adult rate of the Classification Act has nearly doubled, having advanced from $1,020 to $2,020; the average annual-salary earnings have advanced from $1,996 to $3,352, an increase of 68 percent; and the maximum salary rate has advanced from $9,000 to $10,330, an increase of 14.8 percent.

TOP SALARY LEVELS OUTSIDE THE FEDERAL SERVICE

A large body of outside salary data was collected for the subcommittee by the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress. As pointed out previously, there is no thought that the Government should be closely guided by salary rates paid by large private industrial corporations to their top executives. Nevertheless, outside salary data indicating top-pay levels in private industry, in

the Dominion of Canada, in States and cities, and in international organizations, are pertinent as background for the consideration of the top-bracket salary problem of the Federal Government.

The following sample indicates some of the significant information considered by the subcommittee:

In private industry

TABLE 5.-Summary of officers' salaries in 39 private industrial corporations, reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1946-47

The three tables below give further information as to executive compensation in private industry.

TABLE 6.-Range of salaries paid to executives of 11 small companies (1941)

Source: From Payments to Senior Corporation Executives, by John C. Baker, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1945. The 11 companies studied have assets ranging from 5 to 46 million dollars, with median assets $16,000,000.

TABLE 7.-Range of salaries paid to executives of 14 large companies (1941)

Source: From Payments to Senior Corporation Executives, by John C. Baker, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1945. The 14 companies studied have assets ranging from 58 to 192 million dollars, with median assets $123,500,000.