Pay System for Feds, Designed for Equity, May Disadvantage Women

The rigidity of the federal pay system can help level the playing field between men and women, but it also can work against women.

Women often leave federal jobs for family reasons and come back to agencies in larger numbers than men, attorney Cheri Cannon told Bloomberg Law. “When they come back, they are put back where they were while their peers are way ahead,” said Cannon, a managing partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC in Washington who oversees the firm’s federal sector practice. The government tends to reward years of service and employees who “have been steadily working their way ...