U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

The Office of Personnel Management sets governmentwide classification policy. It also develops and issues position classification and job grading standards and decides classification or job grading appeals filed by current Federal employees or their designated representatives. Responsibility for the Federal Government's position classification program is shared by two offices, the Classification Programs Division, and the Office of Merit Systems Oversight.

The Classification Programs Division develops and issues classification policy and position classification and job grading standards. You may view these standards and position classification policy for work performed in the Federal Government on the Federal Classification Home Page or on the HRCD: GS Position Classification and Job Grading Standards.

The Office of Merit Systems Oversight decides classification appeals from current Federal employees. A decision from the Office of Personnel Management is the final administrative decision on an appeal. Our regulations for classification appeals for General Schedule employees are in subpart F of part 511 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations. Our regulations for job grading appeals for Federal Wage System employees are in subpart G of part 532 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations. Changes to the Code of Federal Regulations are published in the Federal Register.

Federal agencies have authority and responsibility under section 5107 of title 5, United States Code, to classify positions consistent with position classification and job grading standards issued by the Office of Personnel Management. To determine the proper occupational series, title, grade, and pay plan of a specific position, an agency evaluates the duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements of a position against the appropriate standards. Thus, similar or like positions throughout the Federal workforce should be classified in a consistent manner, since they are evaluated against the same standards rather than through position-to-position comparisons. Agencies are required to grade positions according to the duties required by the position; that is, positions are graded based on the content of the work and not on the employee's qualifications.

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