The decision to table the pay scale proposal shocked some council members. State Department CIO Fernando Burbano, one of the proposal s chief proponents, said he was dismayed that the report did not confront the pay problem more directly. I thought we were done with studies, he said. The State Department and other agencies are facing a worker shortage that promises to get worse, Burbano said. State has had a 20 percent to 30 percent vacancy rate in its systems jobs, hindering the department s ability to maintain and develop systems, he said.
Agencies see pay as a critical issue in attracting staff.
A serious disparity exists in IT salary levels between the federal government and the private sector, the report said. More money Salary is becoming a big issue in attracting people and retaining them, said Mark A. Abramson, executive director of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government. Abramson recently completed a survey in which career federal executives said salary is a reason to think about leaving government. No contest Officials generally recognize that government cannot compete with the private sector in salary head-on. Gloria R. Parker, CIO at the Housing and Urban Development Department and co-chairwoman of the Education and Training Committee, said salaries need to be within 20 percent of market rates to be competitive.