dual which would be relevant to his present status in the Department. 14,

Total government service includes the experience gained by employees in Federal agencies other than the Department, and their experience in DOL prior to the last appointment. Length of service in the Depart

ment was also examined and will be referred to when use

ful.

However, unless otherwise noted, "length of service"

refers to total government service.

Blacks

The length of service data disclose that black professional employees have not been recent entrants to Government service. The average length of service is the same for blacks as for all professionals, 13 years. Among professionals in the National Office, black males and females have longer service compared to all males and females. This pattern also prevails for black females in the Field. The only case where black professionals have less service than all professionals is among males in the Field.

(Tables 1-3, pp. 242-25).

14/Government service includes military service.

То

convert total Government service to civilian service, two years were subtracted from the service of each employee with a veteran's preference.

Comparing the length of service for black profes

sionals to that for all professionals at each GS grade

shows a significant difference.

Black professionals in

the lower grades, GS 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12, have longer

service than all professionals.

On the other hand, blacks

The

in the higher grades have less government service than all employees in these grades. As a result, length of service rises much more sharply as GS grade increases for all professionals in comparison to black professionals. length of service of black professionals is almost constant over grades GS 7-16. This pattern is especially evident for black males, and occurs in the National Office and the Field. The longer service of blacks in the lower professional grades implies that they have been stagnated in these positions and this is confirmed by the time-ingrade data. (Chart 15, p. 49; and Tables 1-3, pp. 424-25). One particular factor which should be noted is the substantial length of service for professional GS 5, 7,

8 years, 8 years, and 9 years, respectively.

The average service of blacks in these grades is even

9 years, 14 years, and 13 years, respectively.

Chart 15. AVERAGE LENGTH OF GOVERNMENT SERVICE BY GS GRADE, RACE, AND SEX, NATIONWIDE, MARCH 31, 1971

Source: Table 1, p. 424.

Based on these findings and the substantial time-ingrade of employees in the lower professional positions, the Task Force investigated these jobs and the individuals occupying them. A more detailed explanation is given in the time-in-grade section and in the statisti15/ cal appendix of this report.

The two main conclusions

reached are that some of the professionals in the lower grades are in technical or nonprofessional jobs and that some are in fact professionals who have been stagnated in their jobs because they were denied career ladders. Another possible explanation, which this study was unable to explore, of the substantial service of employees in the lower professional positions is that some of the employees in these jobs had advanced there from the nonprofessional ranks.

An additional method of investigating the extent of underutilization that could be associated with length of service is to examine the average salary of black professionals compared to all professionals who have the same amount of service. The average salary of black professionals with less than one year of service was compared

15/p. 221, part d.

to the average salary of all professionals with less than one year of service, and this comparison was continued

This

for two year intervals up to 40 years of service. analysis discloses that length of service does not explain any of the underutilization of blacks.

Comparing the

average salary only between black professionals and all other professionals who have the same length of service shows that blacks earn 85 percent of the average for all employees. It may be recalled that the examination of underutilization which did not take length of service into account also showed that the average salary of black professionals was 85 percent of that for all professionals. Thus the difference between the average salary of blacks and that for all professionals remains the same whether or not length of service is taken into account. ently, length of service does not explain the inequitable

distribution of black professionals.

Appar

Among males and

females in both the National Office and the Field, the

difference in average salary between black professionals and all professionals is every bit as large standardizing for length of service as a straight comparison that ignores