The Classification and Salary Standardization Movement in the Public Service
| Author | Fred Telford |
| Published date | 01 May 1924 |
| Date | 01 May 1924 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271622411300128 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
206
THE
ANNALS
OF
THE
AMERICAN
ACADEMY
When
pay
rolls
become
large,
statutory
rolls
have
everywhere
proved
useless
as
means
of
fiscal
control.
Under
standardization
every
employe
be-
comes
a
fiscal
inspector.
He
has
a
right
to
equal
treatment.
And
those
in
charge
soon
learn
of their
errors
or
their
favoritism.
The
Classification
and
Salary
Standardization
Movement
in
the
Public
Service
By
FRED
TELFORD
Bureau
of
Public
Personnel
Administration
THE
idea
of
the
duties
classification
to
serve
as
a
basis
for
selecting,
compensating,
promoting,
training,
transferring,
rating
(on
efficiency),
lay-
ing
off,
dismissing,
and
retiring
em-
ployes
and
for
handling
some
other
employment
matters
originated
in
this
country
in
Chicago
about
1909
or
1910.
At
that
time
the
Chicago
Civil
Service
Commission
was
carrying
on
certain
work
in
some
of
the
city
departments.
In
the
course
of
its
work
the
commis-
sion
discovered
the
futility
of
trying
to
bring
about
improvements
due
to
the
fact
that
the
titles
in
use
were
fre-
quently
not
descriptive
and
in
many
cases
were
actually
misleading;
that
some
employes
did
not
possess
the
qualifications
necessary
for
performing
properly
the
duties
of
the
positions
they
were
holding;
that
the
compensa-
tion
of
employes
in
many
cases
bore
little
relation
either
to
the
title
or
to
the
work
performed
and
for
whole
groups
doing
similar
work
varied
widely
as
to
amount;
and
that
because
of
the
numerous
vague
and
misleading
titles
the
appointing
authorities,
the
mayor,
the
city
council,
and
the
Civil
Service
Commission
had
no
means
of
understanding
each
other
when
talking
or
writing
about
positions
and,
as
a
matter
of
fact,
frequently
attached
very
diverse
meanings
to
a
given
term.
In
the
course
of
this
improvement
work,
the
commission
gathered
fairly
complete
and
accurate
data
with
re-
gard
to
the
positions
in
some
of
the
units
of
the
city
government.
The
idea
was
conceived
of
grouping
to-
gether
positions
substantially
similar
as
to
the
duties
performed
by
the
em-
ployes
holding
them
and
of
giving
each
such
group
of
positions
an
appropriate
title
as
descriptive
as
possible
of
the
duties
attached
to
the
positions
in
the
group.
After
more
or
less
discussion,
the
plan
was
worked
out
in
consider-
able
detail;
first,
for
a
few
organization
units,
and
then
for
practically
the
whole
city
service.
As
a
result
of
this
work,
the
commission,
the
appointing
authorities,
the
mayor,
the
city
coun-
cil,
civic
organizations,
applicants
for
positions
in
the
city
service,
news-
papers,
and
others
had
for
the
first
time
a
definite
label
for
positions
such
that
each
could
be
sure
of
what
the
other
had
in
mind
when
a
given
title
was
used.
The
Civil
Service
Commission
natu-
rally
began
to
use
these
descriptive
titles
in
announcing
and
holding
tests,
and
required
appointing
authorities
to
use
them
in
requesting
the
certification
of
eligibles
to
fill
vacant
positions.
Through
a
gentleman’s
agreement,
the
finance
committee
of
the
city
council
also
used
the
titles
in
the
appropriation
ordinance
and
put
into
effect
a
com-
pensation
plan
providing
for
each
class
of
positions
a
minimum
rate
below
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