(12) Tentatively defined classes within services, sorted cards to classes, and revised specifications.

(13) Issued tentative class specifications as a basis for hearings and departmental criticism.

(14) Held hearings at which criticisms of specifications and suggestions on salaries were received.

(15) Revised the specifications in the light of criticisms received at the hearings and offered by department heads in correspondence.

(16) Developed a statistical force, detailed from the departments.

(17) Compiled from the questionnaires, statistics on salaries paid to employees in the respective classes.

(18) Organized a research staff under the immediate charge of a retained member of the staff of a municipal civic agency and made up of members detailed from the departments.

(19) Investigated employment conditions and policies and received advice from a committee of civic leaders, administrative officials, and representatives of employees.

(20) Studied economic conditions and received advice from a committee of Government economists, administrators, and representatives of employees.

(21) Organized advisory committees on sources of wage data made up of administrators, employees, and citizens not in Government employ.

(22) Collected sample data on compensation paid by private concerns and public bodies outside of the District of Columbia to employees occuping positions analogous to those in the Washington service.

(23) Adopted a proposed plan of administration of the classification and the compensation schedules.

(24) Adopted recommendations on compensation schedules.

(25) Prepared and submitted the printed report of the commission to the Congress.64

For the purposes of this monograph the above description of the methods pursued is sufficient. Chapter VIII of the Commission's report gives a detailed account of the methods of procedure, the organization and activities of its staff, its investigations and researches, and the assistance received from the departments, employees, and citizens.

64

Report of the Congressional Joint Commission on Reclassification of Salaries, 66 Cong., H. doc. 686, pp. 146, 147.

The Commission's Findings. The act creating the Commission provided that it should report as early as possible, and in any event, by the second Monday in January, 1920, but by a public resolution approved January 10, 1920, the time for filing the report was extended to March 12, 1920 (41 Stat. L., 386). On the latter date the Commission's report, a document of nearly nine hundred pages, was filed. As representing up to the time the most comprehensive undertaking of its kind conducted, the findings were of great importance. For the first time the federal service had been subjected to a critical and analytical study. In addition, the work of the Commission ultimately led to the passage of the Classification Act of 1923. The findings concerning classification and compensation were as follows:

As to the lack of uniformity and equity in present rates, the Commission finds:

1. That the salary and wage rates for positions involving like duties and responsibilities and calling for the same qualifications (that is, for positions of the same class) show wide variations and marked inequalities.

2. That the salary and wage rates for positions of the same class are different in different departments and independent establishments, the scale of pay in some departments being markedly higher than the scale for the same class of work in other departments.

3. That these inequalities in salary and wage scales as between departments are most striking when the rates of pay in the war-expanded establishments are contrasted with those in the organizations that were not largely increased during the war.

4. That the present system of paying bonuses tends to increase the inequality in salary and wage rates for positions of the same class.

5. That rates of compensation in the Government service as a whole have not increased as rapidly as has the cost of living.

6. That the amounts of recent increases in rates of pay in the Government service have varied greatly (a) as between classes of employment and (b) as between departments.

As to the causes that have led, and unless remedied will continue to lead, to this lack of uniformity and equity the Commission finds:

7. That the Government has no standard to guide it in fixing the pay of its employees and no working plan for relating the salaries appropriated to the character and importance of the work for which such salaries are to be paid, and that the designations of positions now appearing in the Book of Estimates are inaccurate and misleading.

8. That there is a large number of unnecessary titles of positions contained in the Book of Estimates upon which appropriations are based, due to the lack of definition of duties of positions, that this is a factor in causing lack of uniformity in rates of pay, and that this number can be materially reduced.

9. That the lack of standardization in rates of pay may be largely accounted for by the unrestricted freedom allowed in the administration of lump-sum appropriations and the rigidity of the present system of statutory appropriations.

10. That the present method of fixing the salaries of employees upon their entrance into the service leads to inequality in the rates of pay for the same class of work at the very start.

11. That the absence of any uniform plan or system for regulating increases in the pay of employees who have gained in experience and usefulness in a given class of work and the even more serious lack of any equitable system governing promotions from lower to higher classes of positions have been very large factors in causing the disproportion in pay and work.

Recommendations. As a result of these conditions found, the Commission recommended certain measures for the purpose of introducing "order and reason into the salary situation." "Adoption of these recommendations," the Commission stated, would "bring about as to each position and each individual employee that readjustment called for by the act to provide uniform and equitable pay for the same character of employment." It also put forward "certain proposals for a future policy and procedure to provide for the permanent maintenance of the uniformity and equity thus secured."

Twelve of the Commission's twenty-four recommendations were summarized as follows:

For the immediate attainment of uniformity and equity in pay for the same character of employment the Commission recommends:

1. That the Congress adopt the classification of positions set forth.

2. That the Congress adopt the schedules of compensation set forth for the respective classes of positions.

3. That the Congress authorize the Civil Service Commission to take over the Reclassification Commission's records and keep them current, pending action on the above recommendations.

4. That the Congress direct an existing agency (hereinafter referred to as the "Classification Agency"), logically and preferably the Civil Service Commission, to make a final allocation of individual positions to the classes set forth in the recommended plan of classification.

5. That the Congress authorize and provide for the adjustment of the rates of pay of individual positions and employees to bring them, beginning July 1, 1920, into conformity with the schedules of compensation prescribed for the respective classes into which the respective positions have been classified.

For the future maintenance of uniformity and equity in pay the Commission recommends:

6. That permanent administration of the classification and schedules of compensation be delegated by law to an existing independent agency of the Government (to be termed hereinafter the "Classification Agency"), logically and preferably the Civil Service Commission.

7. That the Classification Agency periodically recommend to the Congress additions to, or amendments of, the classification.

8. That the Classification Agency recommend to the Congress new schedules of compensation for new classes of positions, or changes, if deemed desirable, in the established schedules for existing classes, recommended schedules for new classes to apply until acted upon by the Congress and then to become effective in the form approved by the Congress.

9. That new or additional positions that it is proposed to create be first classified by the Classification Agency.

10. That estimates, appropriations, and payments for personal services be made under the title of the class and in accordance with the schedule of pay applying to the class which the Classification Agency certifies as applicable to the position in which such services are to be or have been rendered.

11. That the pay of individual employees be regulated on a basis of efficiency and length of service in the class in

which their respective positions are classified, according to the schedule of compensation applying to the class.

For the attainment of uniformity in the regulation of all factors having an indirect bearing on rates of pay and for the improvement and standardization of working conditions, the Commission recommends:

12. That the Classification Agency recommend to the Congress from time to time those measures that it deems necessary to the improvement and the standardization of working conditions and terms of employment.

The Commission also maintained that adoption of its general recommendations dealing with the whole subject of employment would insure a sound system of personnel administration.65

Classification Activities Resumed by Bureau of Efficiency. During the same period that the Joint Commission on Reclassification of Salaries was focusing public attention on the problem of classification and salary standardization and even previously, the Bureau of Efficiency was engaged in carrying on a "classification of positions as a basis for the rating of the efficiency of employees." This was at first confined to but a few of the offices or departments, but in 1921 it was "extended to include all offices and departments in the competitive civil service in the District of Columbia."

This work arose out of the Bureau's studies and investigations in developing efficiency-ratings in the classified civil service. The legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913 (37 Stat. L., 413), required the establishment of "a system of efficiency ratings for the classified service in the several executive departments in the District of Columbia," subject to the approval of the President. In working out efficiency-rating systems for the several departments, a classification of positions according to their character and value was required. On the basis of this classification, Congress did grant the Post Office Department the right to make certain salary

The Commission also incorporated in its report a draft of a proposed bill embodying its recommendations.