February 23, 2004
THE BUSH REVOLUTION:
Security Workers on Merit (CS Monitor, 2/24/04)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stepped into line with a commonly accepted practice in corporate America: tying pay increases to performance and the type of job performed.Last week, the department formally announced its plans to shed an outdated federal system of handing out annual pay increases as a matter of course. The new rules would give government managers the flexibility they need in DHS's primary task of countering terrorists.
Salaries will be structured according to the type of work, a person's experience, and job location - and, notably, not by seniority. And in the case of a national emergency, the president can waive labor agreements. [...]
DHS began putting together 180,000 employees from some 22 government agencies in 2002. When a similar restructuring is complete at the Defense Department, about half the government's 1.8 million civilian employees will have made the transition to the new merit system. That's costly in the short term, but cost-saving in the long run.
You could no more get the President's conservative critics to acknowledge this titanic, but invisible, victory than get him to pronounce "nuclear" right. No wonder people say we're the Stupid Party. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 23, 2004 9:05 PM
It looks like that Harvard degree is going to count for something.
Posted by: jim hamlen at February 23, 2004 9:35 PMDon't people realize that pushing a pencil, and then a computer mouse, for 22 continuous years is deserving of just compensation for her years of labor?
Oh, the Humanity!
Merit pay is indeed a big deal and will make a difference in bureaucratic accountability. The top layer of career federal employees ... the Senior Executive Service ... has been on a variation of merit pay since 1978. Works pretty well, and although a kind of grade creep is inevitable, the Bushies are also reining that in.
Consider, however, that there may be such a thing as too much bureaucratic responsiveness. Imagine a different outcome of the 2000 election and a fully pliant federal workforce.
Posted by: Tonto at February 24, 2004 12:21 AM
Why stop just with merit pay? 1 million to 3 million bureaucrats could be working for private contractors. Work would be distributed to the lowest bidders, if we are lucky most of the jobs could be exported to India. (if we were really lucky our congressmen would be North Koreans)
Posted by: h-man at February 24, 2004 6:23 AMOJs main point is valid - this is the type of reform Bush is accomplishing that is too subtle or not good enough for the conservatives. They would rather bash Bush all day long for increasing NEA spending by $15MM than acknowledge he is making any progress.
Posted by: AWW at February 24, 2004 8:03 AM