Evening star., 1920-01-30
HEADS OF FEDERAL
bUREAUSASKEDT0
FIX SALARY SCALE
Recommendations Sought
From Cabinet Members and
Other Officials.

! Members of the cabinet and heads
of Independent government establish
ments today were asked by the joint
congressional commission on reclas-
sification of salaries in the District
| to recommend salaries for all of the
1.700 classes of positions into which
the 10000 federal employees in the
National Capital have been divided.
The commission is unanimous in
the opinion that it has reached the
stage of it's work in arriving at salary
recomme ndations where the recon-
mendations of the cabinet officers.
heads of the great government de-
partments and of the heads of the
various Independent establishments
will he most helpful
This step completes preliminary
work before the final decisions on
salaries.
Suggestions Are Helpful.
Director Herbert r. Fleming of the
commission today pointed out that
prior to the thirty-six hearings af
forded the employees the commission
sent to each department head COM
plete set of the tentative class speci-
fcations for the employees.
Many of the department heads
sent in criticisms and suggestions on
the specifications. which have been
helpful to the commission and it's
Headquarters staff of experts in re-
vising the specifica tionS," Director
Fleming stated.
THE department heads were not at
that time asked to make salary recon-
mendationS. however" Mr.. Fleming
continued. Now the commission is
sending out to all of the cabinet Off
GERS and heads of independent govern
ment establishments lists of class
titles and the lists of salary recon-
mendations made at the hearings of
the various classes. 1t is asking each
one at the very head of every depart
ment to give an official expression as
to these recomm endationS."
The stand of the cabinet members on
the salary question is looked forward
to eagerly by the members of the re-
classification commission and by the
federal clerks in general 1t is COM
monty felt that the requests of the
government employees themselves as
set forth at the hearings. were entire
ly moderate, although always revised
upward.
Submitted Recommendations.
At the hearings recommendations
on compensation were submitted by
committees representing both ad-
ministrators. such as chief clerks,
bureau and division chiefs, and the
employees. 1t is stated by the re-
classification commission that in most
cases the recommendations of both
administrators and employees were
Identical
The administrators recommended
salaries that they felt were neces-
sary in order to get and retain efi-
cient employees. The employees recon-
mended salaries which they thought
would be just. The number of cases
in which the recommendations di-
Ferged were very small.
In the majority of instances the
committees submitted their recon-
mendations under seal. Their project
was not to let the recommendations
made at any one hearing unduly in
fluence those making recommends
tions at subsequent hearings.
In the letter sending out the titles
and salary recommendations re-
ceived at the hearings the reclassi-
fication commission is referring the
cabinet members back to the specifi-
cations they received prior to the
hearings. 50 that they will under
stand exactly the significance of the
title of each class of positions.
The specifications contain state
ments of the duties of the positions
in the class. with examples and
statements of the qualifications re-
quired to perform the duties and sug-
gested lines of promotion from class
to class. Thus. titles in the govern
ment service have at last a precise
scientific meaning.