FBI RAISES PAY, OFFERS BONUS TO END N.Y, STAFFING CRISIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00530R000701770002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 16, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/26: CIA-RDP90-0053OR000701770002-3
00
ers Bonus '
FBI Raises Pay, Off
To End N.Y. Staffing Crisis
By Michael Isikoff
Washington Post Sjaff Writer
The FBI has boosted pay for its
agents in New York City by 25 per-
cent-and offered a $20,000 bonus
to agents who agree to move
there-in an. effort to solve a staff-
ing crisis that has led to 300 vacan-
cies in the bureau's largest office.
The new pay levels for New
York, authorized under the recently
passed Intelligence Authorization,
Act, are the first response to what
bureau officials say has become a
growing morale and staffing prob-
lem in some of its key offices across
the country.
The problem has been most
acute in New York, where pay
scales have fallen so far behind the
cost of living that agents were re-
signing rather than accepting trans-
fers there, FBI spokesman Greg
Jones said yesterday.
New York has long been consid-
ered the bureau's most crucial of-
fice, with special concentrations on
organized crime as well as foreign
counterintelligence because of the
presence of the. United Nations.
The office has approximately 1,800
positions.
A bureau study found that so
many'agents had moved to the far
New York suburbs that they were
unable to arrive at the scene of.,a
crime within the required two
hours. "It was impacting upon our
ability to respond-to emergencies,"
Jones said.
The entry level salary for an FBI
agent is $31,500, while journey-
men-agents with seven years of
experience-are paid about
$39,500, or about 50 percent less
than the average local police cap-
tain. "We can't even tear away a
New York police officer [to work,
for the FBI] because a rookie offi-
cer comes in at $38,000 with over-
time," Jones said.
The pay boost puts entry salaries
in New York at $39,375. FBI
agents elsewhere will receive the
standard 4.1 percent salary in-
crease that the federal work force
gets Jan. 1.
In addition, the bureau will offer
the $20,000 lump-sum bonus as a
housing allowance to agents who
agree to be relocated to New York
and move into homes within a 50-
mile radius of the city.
FBI Director William,S. Sessions
has directed that pay scales also be
studied in Los Angeles, San Fran-
cisco,,Chicago, Boston and Newark.
But no determination has been
made yet on increases for agents in
those cities.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/26: CIA-RDP90-0053OR000701770002-3