The Washington times., 1931-02-09
PRIVATE FIRMS
=, RAID OFFICES,
REPORT SAYS
Personnel Board Leader to
Launch Campaign; Wages in i
. Lower Grades Held Proper

LOWSF 0FdueS heIu PROPER
A hint that the Federal Gov.
ernment will undertake a rev
campaign to prevent its higher
paid professional workers from
going into the ranks of private
industry is contained in the tes-
timony of w. H. McReynolds,
chairman of the Personnel CLASH
fication Board, in the House
hearings on the independent Of
fices appropriation bill, made pub
lc today.
Definite announcement tt a t
commercial employers are still
Turing away some of the best
Government-trained workers by
the bait of higher salaries was
: made by Mr.. McReynolds.
Salaries Advanced
Salary advances in the last
five years have tended to stem
the flow of designations among
the. professional workers in the
Federal service, but they have not
been stopped.
The present salary levels in the
Federal service are higher than
those paid in private industry, so
far as the rank and file of
workers, those earning less than
$4,000 a year, are concerned, but
are lower in the professional and
administration grades, it was
, stated.
On this issue, Mr.. McReynolds
said:
"In clerical employments,
o. from the bottom up in the first
three or four grades, the Govern
ment rate of pay is measurabIy
higher than the outside rate.
In the lowest clerical grade, the
Government rate is $3.50 a year
higher than the average outside
rate.
Difference Is Reduced
Tn the next lowest grade,
this difference is cut down to
about $22O higher in the
Government service than it Is
, outside. In Grade 3 the differ
ence is cut down to about $50
and, in the next grade, the
rates are pretty close together"
Then in reply to an inquiry as
TO whether these data would not
have a tendency to lower the
grades in the lower grades of the
Government service" Mr.. Nc,
? Reynolds stated:
"T do not know what effect
1T will have so far as the Gov
ernment is concerned. MY ex.
p perience has been that Congress
is not likely to reduce the lower
Salaried groups, but certainly
the data gathered would justify
our recommending in the field
report that a higher minimum
rate be fixed for Government
: service, as compared with the
outside"
Higher Salaries Urged.
At another point in his testi-
mony Mr.. McReynolds declared: {:
AT the other end of the
' scale, all of our figures, and
every study that has ever been
made, show that the Govern.
ment pays a lower rate in posi-.
tiOns above the $4,000 level
than the outside employer does.
"There will be submitted to
Congress shortly a report that
officially recommends a classi-
ficatiOn schedule that is built
with the idea of refIecting, as
far as it seemed to be practica-
bic to reflect it, the relation.
y ship between the outside service
and the Government service"
The fight to maintain the
"automatic salary increase" fea-
lures of the Welch and Brook.
hart acts will enter upon its
final phase in Congress this
week, with every prospect that
the campaign to enforce them
in the coming fiscal year will be
abandoned.
This will not be so marked a
defeat for the Federal employees
, as it has been represented to be,
however, it was learned today on
good authority.
Congress has been led to hold
salary increases for the Govern
ment workers in allegiance, it vas
said, because of the prospect that
the next session of Congress will
enact classification legislation
overhauling virtually all of the
present acts on the statute books.
The decision of the House Ap-
preparations Committee, which has
, been consistently supported in the
House, to limit all salary increases
to the so-called "underaverage
workers" has served to accentuate
the weakness of the present per.
sonnel system and has led to an
attempt to revise it.