Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-06
Congress Will Receive Rec
ommendation Classifying
Federal Employees.
PERSONNEL BOARD MAKES
SURVEY OF SITUATION
Report Will Ask That Those Now
Outside of Jurisdiction Be
Placed Under Board.

Increases in pay for thousands Of
Government workers here and in the
field will be recommended to Congress
at the opening of the December session
by the Personnel Classification Board.
The recommendation will be enl.
bodied in report on the field survey
and classification of Federal workers
throughout the world. This report not
only will present the new class speci-
fcations and ALLEGATIONS to pay Of about
10000 persons in the field service. but
more important to Government work
ers, here. it will propose notifications
upward in the pay levels of the classi-
fcation act Of 1923. amended by the
WEIGH act of 1928, which regulates pay
in the District of Columbia.
$4,000 d. C. Workers Effected.
The disclosure is expected to be hailed
with enthusiasm. Fifty thousand
workers here, come under
the system of pay controlled by the
Personnel Classification Board. The
total number of employees in the execu-
tive departments in the District on
June 80. the end of the fiscal year
was SO ,909 leaving more than $4,000
outside of Personnel Classification
Board control.
Another feature Of the report Of the
board to Congress. 1t was also learned
today, will be recommendation that
thousands of these Government
workers, who are now without the juris-
oiction OF the board, be placed under
the boards supervision.
Decision to make recommendations
to Congress for raise in the pay levels
OF the classification act was reached
as result of the survey made by the
board, under direction of
William H. McReynolds, assistant chief
of the Bureau Of Efficiency, and dtrec-
tor of the field survey of the board. The
survey not only gathered a mass Of
data regarding the pay Of persons en-
ployed by commercial firms doing work
similar to that done by Government
workers throughout the world, but it
also has amaSsed reports on 10000
field workers, some of whom are EN-.
ployed in this city.
Survey Carefully Prepared.
The results of this extensive survey
have been carefully prepared and some
specification sheets are now tn the
hands of the Government Printing Of
flee. to start the wheels rolling toward
the huge report which is to go to Con-
gress.
Principles behind the entire survey
and the conclusions for increased pay
recommendations to Congress are un-
derstood to have been laid before high
officials of the administration. who are
keenly interested in this vital matter
affecting thousands of the workers
Whether the increases in pay will
be made to Government workers de-
pends, of course, entirely upon what
Congress will do with the recommended
ton of the Classification Board.
The board was authorized by Con-
gress in the WEIGH act to make the
field survey and to equaliSe the field
and District of Columbia pay for Gov
ernment employees. 1t became neces-
sary. therefore, for the board to pro-
pose a system to maintain this quality,
or parity" between the field and this
city. In order to make this parity ef-
fective, it became clear to the board
that raise in the pay levels of the classi-
flcation act as amended by the WEIGH
act would be necessary.
Positions Compared.
What the board did was to make the
survey of pay in commercial positions,
comparable with Government positions.
1t collected a dual report on the duties
of each of 10000 field workers. This
report came both from the employe
himself and from the employees super
visor. All these reports were placed in
piles. so to speak. and all field en-
ployes in whatever department of es-
tablishment doing like work had their
work reports assembled. Experts of the
board then wrote out specifications de-
scribing duties of the various classes
of employees. so as to make them "uni-
formly applicable" to all, the purpose
of classification being to "equalize de-
examinations between departments.
The task of writing these general
specifications of jobs has made rapid
progress and some of them have
already gone to the Government Print
ing Office The various Government
departments and establishments have
made -reouisitions on the Government
Printing ONCE for supplies which they
will need in "allocating" their various
employees and will receive them as soon
as possible. The Government depart
ments then will allocate their field
workers to salary grades under the
classification act and make q report OF
these ALLEGATIONS to the personnel
classification board, which in turn will
use them as part Of the report to Con-
gress.
The largest groups Of field workers
and the number in the various depart
ments who are to be allocated under
the new class specifications are as fol~
lows
Interior Department, 1884: Treasury
Department. the largest. total. 32.430,
including Customs Bureau, 1851: Pro.
hibition Bureau. 1866: Internal Rev
enue Bureau, 1921; Supervising Archi-
tect's Office, 6,263, and Public Health
Service, 1896; Commerce Department,
1884, including 1900 at the Bureau Of
Lighthouses: War Department, lS,49s;
Justice Department. including marshal's
offices, prison employees and others,
1864; Labor Department. 3.113: Depart
ment OF Agriculture, 10.f73: Navy De-
partment, 6,004; State Department, 81:
Interstate Commerce Commission, Sal:
Veterans Bureau, 19,429; Panama Canal.
1919; Civil Service Commission, 159:
national advisory committee on aero
nautics, 100; Employees Compensation
Commission, 81: Federal Trade Com
mission, "a. and several others with
smaller groups of employees.