Remove All Grade-Level Classification Criteria

1. Remove all grade-level classification criteria from the law while
retaining the 15-grade structure.

The director of OPM should submit proposed legislation to Congress by
fall 1994 that would repeal the classification criteria for the 15
grades in the General Schedule system now codified in law.(12) The
statutory classification criteria have remained essentially unchanged
since 1949.(13) The government should have the flexibility to make
changes in the classification criteria in response to changes in the
work world without going through the legislative process.  Initially,
OPM should administratively adopt the existing criteria and then make
changes as warranted.

In addition to providing needed flexibility, removing the
classification criteria from the law would also help reinforce the idea
that, like private sector employees, federal employees do not have a
statutory entitlement to a precise grade or pay level.

Endnotes

12. Title 5, United States Code, sec. 5104.

13. Minor changes to the GS-5 and GS-7 definitions were made in the
Federal Employees Salary Increase Act of 1958.