Are Public Radio salaries tied to U.S. Civil Service pay tables?

July 15, 2018 1:57 PM

I asked a spokesperson for NPR about a discovery I made regarding CPB oversight of public broadcasting. CPB was required to issue, by November 1979, accounting principles for use by telecommunication entities to account fully for all funds received and expended by such entities. In addition, CPB is required to:

- receive assurances prior to funding, that no NPR employee or officer was receiving compensation in excess of the basic pay rate in effect for Level I of the Executive Schedule under section 5312 of Title 5. This is on page 1 of the enclosure - https://www.gao.gov/assets/210/207139.pdf

The spokesperson said NPR salaries are not tied to U.S. Civil Service pay tables.

But as a former federal employee, I recognize that schedule. So the question is, are public radio and public broadcasting salaries in some way tied to U.S. Civil Service pay tables? Or did they used to be but aren't anymore?

posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (1 answer total)

Best answer: You can read the current version of 47 USC 396, the section of law cited in the GAO report. It's been changed and reconfigured a bunch since the 70s (you can see all the amendments under the "notes" tab if you want to start tracing through when it changed; you'll also find a note in there at the bottom that employees could keep their higher salary if they had it before). There are two sections that seem relevant to your question:

(e)(1) The Corporation shall have a President, and such other officers as may be named and appointed by the Board for terms and at rates of compensation fixed by the Board. No officer or employee of the Corporation may be compensated by the Corporation at an annual rate of pay which exceeds the rate of basic pay in effect from time to time for level I of the Executive Schedule under section 5312 of title 5.

That's describing an upper limit for salaries of employees and officers of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, not NPR. More relevant:

(k)(9) Funds may not be distributed pursuant to this subsection to the Public Broadcasting Service or National Public Radio (or any successor organization) unless assurances are provided to the Corporation that no officer or employee of the Public Broadcasting Service or National Public Radio (or any successor organization), as the case may be, will be compensated in excess of reasonable compensation as determined pursuant to Section [4] 4958 of title 26 for services that the officer or employee renders to organization,[5] and unless further assurances are provided to the Corporation that no officer or employee of such an entity will be loaned money by that entity on an interest-free basis

And if you turn to section 4958 of title 26, you'll see that's about taxes on excess benefit transactions: "Reasonable compensation paid to employees of the non-profit organization is not considered an excess benefit."

It appears that the requirements in the GAO report you cite were adopted in 1978 with the Public Telecommunications Financing Act. In the "notes" tab, you'll find that a appropriations bill in 1998 removed the language linking maximum pay to the executive schedule and replaced it with the reference we have today to the normal excess benefit rules for nonprofit organizations.
posted by zachlipton at 2:34 PM on July 15, 2018 [5 favorites]