Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (The Board) Organizational Structure The Board reports that its Equal Employment Opportunity Programs Office (EEOPO) is responsible for administering its EEO programs. The staff of the EEOPO consists of the EEO Programs Officer, two senior EEO specialists, and a senior EEO technician. The EEO programs officer appears before the Board's Bank Activities Committee annually concerning EEO issues. However, the EEO programs officer is not a senior officer and does not report directly to the Board or even the Administrative Governor. Additionally, the office of the Staff Director for Management, in which the EEO programs officer serves, can be considered a personnel department, since it is responsible for the oversight of the Board's management and administrative functions. This is a clear violation of the Board's established rules on Equal Employment Opportunity. Equal Employment Opportunity The Board's work force is analyzed by PATCOB (Professional, Administrative, Technical, Clerical, Other and Blue Collar), pay plan, populous job families, and by grades using year-end data. Hiring goals and activities are based on the results of the work force analysis, planned vacancies, and the availability of candidates in the relevant labor market. The Board follows the process established by the EEOC guidelines in developing minority and women hiring and advancement goals. The EEOC has not yet sent its guidelines on establishing multi-year goals for 1994, thus the Board has not provided its 1994 EEO goals. The Board monitors and evaluates the training and development activities by division to determine the extent and level of minority and women participation. During the first two quarters of 1992, non-minority employees had more training dollars spent on them than any other EEO group. Non-minority males received the greatest share of training dollars, more than two times that spent on all other employees. In 1991, seven men, no women and no minorities participated in executive development programs (training for senior management/officers). During the first two quarters of 1992, there were 99 Executive Development sessions: non-minority employees attended 86 of these sessions, of which 69 were attended by non-minority males. The Board's recruitment activities are developed by the Division of Human Resources Management with each division responsible for the approved goal. A summary of the recruitment activities for 1991 and 1992 sheds some light on the possible reasons for the low numbers of minorities and women in high level positions at the Board. In 1991, the Board participated in a number of recruiting efforts at colleges, universities and career fairs across the country. While the Board's summary includes a breakdown for the numbers of minority and women students interviewed at the recruiting event, it generally does not specify the race and gender of those students called back for further interviews, given employment offers or hired. Nonetheless, the overall recruiting numbers show that minorities are less likely to be interviewed on campus by the Board. This may be due to the omission of recruiting at colleges and universities that have predominately minority student bodies. For example, during the last quarter of 1991 and first and second quarters of 1992, the Board conducted on campus interviewing at six universities located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including: American, Georgetown, George Mason, Gallaudet, George Washington and the University of Maryland. However, they did not recruit from Howard University, a predominately minority university located in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, even when the Board participated in minority career fairs, minorities remained less likely to be referred to specific divisions of the Board for further review. For example, the Board participated in a minority career fair sponsored by the Lendman Group and Urban League of Fairfax County in 1992. Of the 354 persons interviewed at the fair, 194 were White, 93 were African American and 67 were Asian. Yet, of the six individuals referred to divisions, four were White males, one was a White female, and one was an Asian male. The Board reports that in order to encourage greater hiring and advancement of women and minorities, the Board will be establishing an internal "Advisory Committee on Affirmative Action" made up of officers appointed by each division. This Advisory Committee will be responsible for analyzing actual Board staffing statistics and providing recommendations to improve minority and women representation, especially at the senior levels. The Advisory Committee's preliminary findings will be reported by February 1994, and recommendations will be considered by the Human Resources Division, senior management, the EEO office, and the Administrative Governor. Staffing Statistics The staffing statistics of the Board do not illustrate a successful program of recruiting and promoting minorities and women to the highest paid positions. The top ten highest paid employees at the Federal Reserve Board are all White males. Minorities and women account for only 6.2% and 17.61% of the highest ten percent paid employees, respectively. However, of the lowest ten percent paid employees, 66.67% are women and 91.2% are minorities. The statistics show that minorities and women account for only 10.6% and 20.2% of the Board's official staff. Not only are they underrepresented at the official level but of those positions in the "pipeline" (grades 13-15) to official staff positions, minorities and women represent only 15.4% and 36.8%, respectively. These numbers are particularly disturbing in light of the fact that the Board monitors and evaluates the Reserve Bank's affirmative action plans and EEO goals. It is questionable whether the Board can adequately evaluate and promote EEO and staffing diversity when its own staffing statistics reflect minimal success in hiring, advancing and maintaining minority and women Cash Awards The Board provided policy statements concerning compensation and benefits programs for the entire Federal Reserve System. Officers and employees at the Board and Reserve Banks (except for the president and first vice president) are eligible for cash award programs. The maximum amount to be allocated for cash awards is up to three quarters of one percent of the eligible employees' salary base. Individual awards should not exceed ten percent of base salary or $5,000, whichever is higher. However, the Board's policy limits cash awards to a maximum of ten percent of salary. Other limitations include restrictions on the number of awards that can be received in a five-year period, and a limitation of one cash award for the same performance contribution. In addition, the Reserve Banks may establish incentive-based programs for officers. The maximum total amount allocated for Reserve Bank officer cash and incentive awards is established at 1.5 percent of the eligible Reserve Bank officer salary base. Of the 1.5 percent, three quarters of one percent could be used to fund cash awards using the same guidelines above, or the full 1.5 percent could be used to fund incentive awards; however, any individual incentive award may not exceed 20 percent of salary. The Board provided its own cash awards statistics by number of recipients only. Therefore, it is impossible to determine whether the specific monetary amounts would illustrate any disparity. |