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At the opposite end of the spectrum from pay being high enough to attract workers is the need for pay to be low enough for government to be able to afford workers. It could be that, in order to attract any qualified mechanics to service police patrol vehicles, so high a wage level must be set that the government is effectively prevented from hiring a sufficient number of mechanics. If the mechanics example is weak, that of medical doctors surely is not. The incomes that MDs command in the private sector make it difficult for governments to afford large numbers of these persons. Also, as salaries are increased to compete with private sector salaries, the costs of personnel increase; a not infrequent response to rising salaries is to reduce the number of workers. Police departments in some instances have been forced to reduce their staffs as wage rates have increased faster than available revenues.
Beyond the problem with direct compensation, there are a number of issues that presented for the federal pay system prior to the more recent reform efforts. These included grade creep, wage and salary ceiling imposition versus nonimposition, compensation that did not accurately reflect performance, the awarding of special pay categories, and abuses in each of these areas that cost taxpayers billions of dollars over the recent past (Lee, 1979).
Cayer (Hays & Kearney, 1990), Schuler, Beutell, and Young blood (1969), and Kanter (Matzer, 1988a) report the emerging existence of cut-back management, during which all levels of government are forced to undergo staff reductions from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy due to decreased revenues. With this philosophy, there has of necessity occurred increased emphasis on such as productivity, efficiency, enhanced recruitment and selection methods that better predict how applicants will perform relative to job duties and responsibilities, a more productive and mean...