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Many positions in the FAA have been placed under the agency’s Core Compensation Plan. This plan integrates a broad band classification system and a market-based pay for performance system. The new compensation system helps the FAA to:
- Communicate clear organizational goals;
- Recognize those that contribute significantly to the achievement of those
goals;
- Provide greater pay opportunities for employees; and
- Better reward and recognize employee who contribute significantly to the agency’s success.
The FAA plan continues to use job series as defined by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). A few job series have be consolidated together to streamline administrative requirements.
Job series performing a similar nature of work and paid similarly in the external market place are
grouped together into one of nine job categories. Pay treatment for all job series within a job category will be the same. Within each job category are a standard number of career levels (3 or 5), reflecting increasing degrees of responsibility and complexity. Two or three additional levels are established for supervisory and managerial positions in each job category.
Each career level within each job category is assigned to one of 12 pay bands, which replace
the current
GS/FG grades. The pay bands are broader in width than the
GS/FG grades and eliminate steps. There is no one-to-one relationship between current
GS/FG grades and the new FAA pay bands.
Job assignments to pay bands are based on analysis of competitive private and public sector pay
levels. Competitive pay data is collected on as many job series within a job category as possible, and the pay band assignments of the career levels within each job category are based on the market pay levels.
An analysis of competitive pay levels is completed on a regular basis. The primary labor market for the FAA is the aviation and airline industry, and additional secondary labor market surveys are also analyzed. The pay rates for the pay bands are targeted to be competitive with these labor markets to ensure the FAA’s ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees. Pay bands are typically reviewed annually and adjusted if necessary to maintain competitiveness with the external market.
Annual base pay changes are linked to both organizational success and individual performance.
General increases, within-grade increases, and quality step increases have been eliminated under this system, and are replaced with two new types of annual performance-based increases. Organizational Success Increases (OSI) are annual base pay increases granted to most employees, provided organizational performance goals are met. Superior Contribution Increases (SCI) are provided in addition to the OSI to a percentage of highly ranked employees based on performance and contributions.
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