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Washington, D.C.—Experience shows government attempts to use alternative pay systems have failed to help agencies recruit and retain high-quality employees or help motivate employees to better achieve agency missions, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees told a key House subcommittee today.

“I don’t know of a single so-called pay-for-performance system that is showing progress on either of those goals,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce.

The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) was holding a hearing on federal employee compensation matters.

In expressing support for the merit-based General Schedule pay system, Kelley pointed to serious problems with alternative pay systems, including those surrounding the much-maligned Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS) at the Transportation Security Administration; the now-dropped National Security Personnel System (NSPS) at the Department of Defense; and a pay-for-performance system for managers at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

President Kelley noted the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said that with the IRS system for managers, “The IRS risks reducing its ability to provide quality service to taxpayers because the (IRS) pay-for-performance system potentially hinders the IRS’s ability to recruit, retain and motivate highly-skilled leaders.”

She also used her testimony to call into question the pay figures used by conservative critics of federal employees to argue they are paid more than their private sector counterparts. “The witnesses who will claim today that federal employees are overpaid have ideological views outside of the mainstream that I believe should raise serious questions about the reliability of their findings.”

The NTEU leader emphasized that using information collected by the respected Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the President’s Pay Agent—made up of three top administration officials—consistently has found a pay gap substantially in favor of the private sector.

“The Pay Agent reports showing lower pay for federal employees have been consistent in Democratic as well as Republican administrations,” she said. The present gap is put at 24 percent, on average, in favor of the private sector.

An important reason for that showing, Kelley said, is that BLS “compares actual job duties, not just job titles,” adding that more than 54 percent of federal employees work in the nine highest-paying occupation groups. Moreover, she said, federal employees are more experienced, older and have more years of education than private sector workers.

The NTEU leader also dispelled the notion that the federal retirement system should be a target for deficit reduction. In the 1980s, she said, the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) was created to replace a defined benefit system. “Today, FERS is fully funded and financially sound, with no unfunded liability,” she said, adding that federal retirement pensions are not overly generous.

President Kelley said the Government Accountability Office has found that one of the most effective ways to manage the federal workforce is by greater use of various flexibilities currently open to agencies. These include time off awards and flexible work schedules that allow employees to better balance the demands of career and family life. “These and other existing flexibilities need to be used more widely,” she said.

The NTEU president emphasized that “NTEU members understand that the country faces challenges, and although they did not cause the fiscal crisis, they are willing to work to help solve it.”

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.