Federal Merit Pay, Round II: An Analysis of the Performance Management and Recognition System

• DOI: 10.2307/977226
• Publication Date: 2006-07-06T00:22:28Z
• Authors: James L. Perry; Beth Ann Petrakis; Theodore K. Miller
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 8. Economic growth; 0506 political science

A decade ago, Congress passed the U.S. Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA). The merit pay provisions of the 1978 reforms were hailed as a means for making federal managers and their organizations more responsive, efficient, and effective. Merit pay proved instead to be demoralizing and counterproductive. Among its shortcomings were inadequate funding, pay inequities between managers and nonmanagers, and invalid performance appraisals.1 Congress sought to remedy these problems in 1984 by creating the Performance Management and Recognition System (PMRS), which covers grades 13, 14, and 15 supervisors and managerial officials and which was intended to strengthen pay-for-performance principles.