The Panel has had called to its attention the fact that existing law provides smaller annuities for the widows of Supreme Court Justices than are provided in other comparable situations. We recommend that the Congress be asked to take appropriate action to bring this legislation up to date. We recommend that the salaries of the Speaker and the Vice President be advanced to $60,000, and that their present allowances of $10,000 be increased to $15,000. We recommend that the salaries of the Members of the Congress be advanced to $35,000, of which $5,000 should be deductible for income tax purposes to offset their living expenses. We recommend that the Congress increase proportionately the salaries of other officers of the legislative branch, fitting them into the appropriate levels of the structure recommended for executive pay. We also recommend that the Congress be urged to take appropriate action to increase very substantially the number of trips each year for which each Member of Congress may be reimbursed by the Federal Government for the conduct of official business in his State or district. We hesitate to recommend any figure for such increase, but we point out that the existing limitations relate to an era in which travel for more than a few hundred miles from Washington required absence from legislative duties for far longer periods than air travel now takes to our most distant States. We also recommend an increase to a maximum of $50 per day in the allowance for per diem in lieu of subsistence for Members of Congress in official travel status. NEED FOR PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORT We are convinced that all Americans want and expect the highest competence in the conduct of national affairs. We are also convinced that the overwhelming majority of them will support substantial adjustment in executive, legislative, and judicial pay if they have assurance that more adequate compensation will provide a major incentive to our ablest men and women to serve in elective and appointive offices in the Federal Government. In our judgment, the four men in American life best equipped by experience to convey that assurance with undisputed authority are the President and his predecessors, former Presidents Hoover, Truman, and Eisenhower. We believe that public statements by you and our former Chief Executives would do more than anything else to promote general understanding of the issues and proposals contained in this report and early consideration of our recommendations by the Congress. Furthermore, we stress the fact, and urge that it be made known as widely as possible, that in either absolute or comparative terms our proposals are not costly. The total additional salary expense of the pay scales which we suggest will not exceed $20 million a year. This is a small price for correcting the inadequacies of today's compensation, which we are convinced is so low that many able people will not accept public office. The Bureau of the Budget and the Civil Service Commission are prepared to present detailed cost figures. We are confident that important leaders of American life, 677 of whom have been canvassed by the National Civil Service League with a request for their recommendations on the salary levels for the Cabinet and the Congress, will also support substantial adjustment. In fact, of the 387 replies which it was possible for the league to tabulate, 158 agreed with figures equal to those recommended by the Panel for the Cabinet salary figure; and 115 agreed with our recommendation for congressional pay. One hundred and forty-two suggested a $30,000 figure for Members of Congress. Only 6 replies suggest no change in Cabinet pay, and only 33 suggest no change in congressional pay. We recommend that the National Civil Service League be asked to urge its respondents to make their individual views known to the leaders of both parties in the Senate and House of Representatives. Finally, we recommend that the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government be authorized and directed to supply descriptive information about our proposals to individuals and groups requesting it. EFFECTIVE DATE OF LEGISLATION We recommend that the Congress be furnished with all necessary information early enough to permit consideration and enactment of legislation along the lines we suggest in this session. We also recommend that the new pay rates be effective on January 1, 1964. We believe that this date will give time for full public discussion, and will be fair to all concerned. Furthermore, in our judgment, an effective date of January 1, 1964, coming in the second session of the present Congress, will minimize any adverse effects upon the next administration of the limitations contained in section 6 of the Constitution which, in pertinent part, reads as follows: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time. We believe, Mr. President, that we have now completed all of the tasks which you asked us to undertake. With the filing of this report, we recommend that our panel be discharged. Then we shall be free to speak our minds as private citizens, not as advisers to the President of the United States. Each of us, in our years of public service, has known its obligations, its rewards, and its penalties. We should like to be at liberty to put the weight of our judgment and our experience into an effort to pay the principal officers of our Government more adequately for carrying the responsibilities imposed upon them in a democratic society. Respectfully, Clarence B. Randall, Chairman, Advisory Panel on APPENDIX ILLUSTRATIVE SALARY DATA PAID BY VARIOUS AMERICAN NON-FEDERAL ORGANIZATIONS PRIVATE ENTERPRISE Total compensation of the 3 highest paid executives in 1,157 corporations, 1961 1 1 Compensation includes base salary plus any bonus or incentive award earned in 1961. Firms included, with the exception of banks and insurance companies, are restricted to those listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Usually the president or chairman of the board. Usually executive vice president or vice president of a major function. Source: "Top Executive Compensation," Studies in Personnel Policy No. 186, National Industrial Conference Board, 1962. PAY RATES OF $25,000 or MORE IN STATE AND LOCal GovernmENT 1 Tabulations which follow do not include all State and local government positions paying $25,000 or more. For example, only a few localities of less than 400,000 population are covered and there are known to be school superintendents and city managers paid $25,000 or more in other localities in the lower population brackets. Hence, the term "Partial" appears on each tabulation. 1 Source: U.S. Civil Service Commission Special Study, March 1963. I. State and local government positions with pay of $25,000 or more summarized by occupation and pay bracket, partial tabulation, March 1963 1 Pay of 1 position includes quarters and/or other allowances value at $5,000 or more. Pay of 4 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. 3 Pay of 2 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. Pay of 10 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. Pay of 7 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. Pay of 1 position includes allowances of $12,894. ?Pay of 1 position includes fees, allowances, and services of an undetermined amount. Pay of 1 position has a salary range that extends over $25,000. Pay of 3 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. 10. Pay of 1 position includes $5,000 for expenses. 11 Pay of 1 position includes $1,500 for expenses. 12 Pay of 10 positions has salary ranges that extend over $25,000. 18 Pay of 1 position includes $4,000 for expenses. 14 Pay of 12 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. 15 Pay of 8 positions includes quarters and/or other allowances valued at $5,000 or more. 16 Pay of 7 positions includes $5,000 for expenses. 17 Pay of 1 position includes $2,500 for expenses. II. State and local government positions with pay of $25,000 or more, parțial tabulation, March 1963 11 position has quarters and/or allowances valued at $5,000 or more. 5 positions have quarters and/or allowances valued at $5,000 or more. 610 positions have a salary range that extends over $25,000. 1 position has a salary range that extends over $25,000. ? Includes an expense allowance of $1,500. Includes an expense allowance of $2,500. 7 positions have expense allowances of $5,000 each. 10 Includes expense allowance of $4,000. |