ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130033
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Above
THE MAINTENANCE BOSS, at $163,800, is just one of the 48 Federal Reserve employees who are paid more than the chairman.
At the Federal Reserve, the chief of maintenance earns $163,800, more than the secretary of state or the secretary of defense as well as the Fed's own chairman. And that's just a start.
Over the past three years, the number of Fed employees paid more than $125,000 a year has more than doubled to 72, up from 35 in 1993.
The House Banking Committee's top Democrat, whose staff gathered the information, contends the pay levels are exorbitant in this era of government downsizing.
``I want to know why the Federal Reserve is building a bigger kingdom while the rest of the government is on the rack,'' said Rep. Henry Gonzalez, D-Texas, a frequent Fed critic who released the data Wednesday.
The top salary is $174,100, and a dozen Fed employees earn it. The Fed's support services director earns $163,800 a year to oversee maintenance, mailroom, procurement, food and copy services and security.
In comparison, a Cabinet secretary earns $148,400 and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan makes $133,600. Of the 72 most highly paid Fed workers, 48 earn more than Greenspan.
Fed spokesman Joe Coyne delayed comment on the specifics of Gonzalez's findings, saying, ``We will respond to Mr. Gonzalez in due time. We do respond to everything he says.''
The support services director is far more than a maintenance chief, Coyne added, saying he oversees up to several hundred employees: ``He's got a lot under his wing.''
Greenspan defended the Fed's pay policies earlier this year after a government audit criticized the central bank's spending habits. The Fed must pay well to compete with the private sector for good people, Greenspan said.
The Fed, which sets monetary policy and provides check clearing and other services for banks, increased its staff by 10 percent from 1988 to 1994, while government-wide employment fell 2 percent, the audit found. Salary costs in the Federal Reserve system rose 44 percent over the six-year period.
The figures also indicate little diversity among the Fed's top earners. Only five minorities and 11 women are included among the 72 highest-paid executives. In 1993, only one woman and one minority held top-paying Fed jobs.
While the Fed has been generous to some, four black secretaries at lower salary levels filed a $30 million class-action lawsuit Tuesday alleging that they earn less than white secretaries and receive smaller bonuses for the same work.
When the secretaries complained earlier to the Fed's equal opportunity office, that office ``denied all relief,'' says the suit, which seeks to include 200 minority secretaries at the Fed's Washington office.
The Fed denies the secretaries' allegations, saying in a statement: ``These allegations of racial discrimination in salary, promotion and training are not supported by the evidence.''
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommended that the Fed dismiss the secretaries' complaint, which it did on June 28.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB