210. Memorandum From the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission (Campbell) to Secretary of State Vance1

SUBJECT

  • Employment of Women and Minorities in the Federal Service—A Special Report

The attached memorandum to the President2 reports on the status and progress of women and minority employment in the Federal Service. It concludes that the Federal service is already reasonably representative in terms of total work force and that dramatic Government-wide change in either total representation or representation by grade level is unlikely. It further concludes that, with extraordinary efforts, the very small gains in recent years for women and minorities in acquiring higher level jobs can be improved. These improvements can be made only if there is commitment at the very top levels of management in every Federal department and agency and if top level managers are involved on a continuing basis.

To aid you in assessing your agency’s affirmative action performance, this memorandum compares your agency with Government-wide averages. We encourage you to use this report to identify and correct any weaknesses in your affirmative action programs. The tables below aggregate minority employment; the attached back-up material should aid you in the analysis of employment concerns of individual minority groups.

As in the report to the President, full-time permanent employment is used as the basis for this report.3 Other parameters of this report are also the same as in the report to the President.

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TOTAL REPRESENTATION

Total representation of women and minorities is as follows:

State Federal Full-Time Permanent Employment Average, Nov. 30, 1977 National Non-Farm Labor Force Employment 1977 Annual Average
Women 37.5% 34.6% 41.2%
Minority 19.5% 20.8% 15.2%

Changes in employment totals of women and minorities over the past four years are detailed below:

1973–76 Average Annual Change 1976–77 Change
State Gov’t Average State Gov’t Average
Women 1.2% 2.8% 2.5% 1.8%
Minority 0.9% 2.4% 3.0% 1.6%
Total Employment a4 1.0% 2.8% a5

REPRESENTATION BY GRADE LEVEL

As indicated in the report to the President, we believe the level of jobs held by women and minorities to be a better measure of their advancement (and therefore of the effectiveness of affirmative action efforts) than overall representation. For your agency, these representation levels are as follows:

Distribution of Women and Minorities

by General Schedule Grade

Full Time Permanent Employment Nov. 30, 1977

GENERAL SCHEDULE & EQUIVALENT6

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State Government Average
GS 1–8
% Women 71.8 68.2
% Minority 34.0 25.8
GS 9–12
% Women 37.8 22.5
% Minority 17.5 12.2
GS 13–15
% Women 10.0 5.9
% Minority 6.3 6.7
GS 16–18
% Women 2.7 3.2
% Minority 2.8 4.9

Over the past year, the following changes took place:

Grade by Grade Representation—Net Change in Percentage Nov. 30, 1976–Nov. 30, 1977 GENERAL SCHEDULE & EQUIVALENT7

State Government Average Change from 1976
GS 1–8
Women +1.1 +0.5
Minorities +0.6 +0.5
GS 9–12
Women −0.9 +1.2
Minorities +0.4 +0.5
GS 13–15
Women +0.4 +0.4
Minorities a8 +0.3
GS 16–18
Women a9 +0.4
Minorities −0.3 +0.2

NON-CAREER EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS

Of special interest is your agency’s performance in hiring non-career executives. Non-career executives are employees at grades GS 16–18 with Non-career Executive Assignments. Included are also a few employees at these levels with Schedule C appointments and a small number with Presidential appointments, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

For these employees, you show the following picture:

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EMPLOYMENT OF NON-CAREER EXECUTIVE WOMEN IN STATE

Date No. of Non-career Employees No. of Non-career Women Percent of Non-career Women
12/31/75 2 1 50.0%
12/31/76 2 1 50.0%
12/31/77 3 1 33.3%

Only three percent of the positions at the supergrade or equivalent levels in the Department are under the General Schedule.

CONCLUSION

We hope this report will be useful to you in your affirmative action program. We intend to provide semi-annual reports to you and to the President. More detailed statistical information is attached for your further analysis.

Attachment

Table Prepared in the Civil Service Commission10

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY PROGRESS REPORT AS OF NOVEMBER 1977

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FULL-TIME PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT NOV 77 CHANGE SINCE NOV 73 CHANGE SINCE NOV 76 DIFFERENCE GOVERNMENT-PERCENT
NUMBER PERCENT
GOVT-WIDE TOTAL (NON-POSTAL) 1,774,447 100.0 2.9 11 . . .
WOMEN 614,627 34.6 10.3 1.8 . . .
BLACK 264,627 14.9 6.7 1.1 . . .
HISPANIC 64,211 3.6 9.8 2.8 . . .
NATIVE AMERICAN 20,534 1.2 29.3 6.1 . . .
ORIENTAL 19,220 1.1 18.9 0.5 . . .
STATE DEPARTMENT 14,149 100.0 2.8 2.8 . . .
WOMEN 5,301 37.5 6.1 2.5 2.9
BLACK 2,273 16.1 8.1 3.5 1.2
HISPANIC 361 2.6 −3.7 l12 −1.0
NATIVE AMERICAN 13 0.1 −13.3 30.0 −1.1
ORIENTAL 116 0.8 −4.9 l13 −0.3

RAW DATA FOR ABOVE TABLE:

NOVEMBER 1976 NOVEMBER 1973
GOVT-WIDE (NON-POSTAL) 1,775,161 1,723,698
WOMEN 603,856 556,993
BLACK 261,702 248,114
HISPANIC 62,476 58,459
NATIVE AMERICAN 19,356 15,879
ORIENTAL 19,121 16,161
STATE DEPARTMENT 13,766 13,767
WOMEN 5,172 4,996
BLACK 2,196 2,102
HISPANIC 361 375
NATIVE AMERICAN 10 15
ORIENTAL 116 122
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Records of the Under Secretary for Management (M), 1977–1978, Box 10, Chron May 1978. No classification marking. Printed from an unsigned copy.
  2. Attached but not printed.
  3. Differs from Minority Group Study of Full-Time Employment: November 30, 1976, by not including full-time temporary employees. Data Source—Central Personnel Data File—excludes Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. [Footnote is in the original. The 1976 report has not been found.]
  4. Less than .05%. [Footnote is in the original.]
  5. Less than .05%. [Footnote is in the original.]
  6. Department of Medicine and Surgery Pay Systems VM and VN in the Veterans Administration and Foreign Service Pay Systems have been equated to the General Schedule. [Footnote is in the original.]
  7. Department of Medicine and Surgery Pay Systems VM and VN in the Veterans Administration and Foreign Service Pay Systems have been equated to the General Schedule. [Footnote is in the original.]
  8. No percentage difference. [Footnote is in the original.]
  9. No percentage difference. [Footnote is in the original.]
  10. No classification marking.
  11. Less than .05 percent. [Footnote is in the original.]
  12. Less than .05 percent. [Footnote is in the original.]
  13. Less than .05 percent. [Footnote is in the original.]