Wages for Federal Blue-Collar Employees Are Being Determined According to the Law, but Improvements Are Needed

Complaints made by Federal employees about the Federal Wage System were investigated. The complaints concerned the annual adjustments to wages of many blue-collar workers.

The investigation disclosed that the wage system was being used legally in all of the cases. In one case, better labor and management cooperation were needed at the local level. In another case, better communication would have improved data collection. The system needed better assurance that the surveys were determining the prevailing wage rates. Many companies refused to participate in the surveys, but this problem could be improved with better communication and increased solicitation. Alternative sources of information should be found to the out-of-date State unemployment records currently in use. The system lacked specific statistical standards to indicate the confidence of the prevailing rate, as determined by the wage surveys.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record