FR29_20231028_omb_B

Supporting Statement Part B for the
Compensation and Salary Surveys
(FR 29; OMB No. 7100-0290)
Summary
For all information collections that involve surveys or require a statistical methodology,
the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is required to provide a complete
justification and explanation of the use of such a methodology. For collections that employ
surveys without such a methodology, the Board should be prepared to justify its decision not to
use statistical methods in any case where such methods might reduce burden or improve
accuracy of results.
Background
The Board implemented a market-sensitive salary structure in 1989, replacing one that
paralleled the federal government’s salary structure. The Board implemented the new structure
based on several factors, including turnover of key employees in important positions (especially
economists, attorneys, and financial analysts), difficulty in hiring experienced professionals and
top-level graduates, and low employee morale because of actual or perceived noncompetitive
pay. The Board met with the consulting firm of Coopers and Lybrand to identify key job
families, select benchmark jobs, and draw the original panel for a salary survey.
In order to fill unanticipated staffing needs and to assist in human resources policy
planning, the Board conducts limited surveys (FR 29b) on an ad hoc basis. These surveys gather
information that is needed between annual salary surveys or information on topics that are not
easily incorporated into the annual survey. For example, this may include information on the
average salaries paid, hiring rates and job descriptions for certain job families. The surveys have
proven to be effective instruments for the timely collection of such information.
Several human resources consulting firms produce data on salaries and compensation
trends; however, these data are less detailed than the information that the Board collects. As
noted above, this published information is used to supplement the FR 29 data, which focus on
jobs comparable to those of Board employees.
Universe and Respondent Selection
The process of designing and conducting the FR 29b ad hoc surveys is informal. Also,
Federal Reserve Banks are asked to participate in surveys. The Board cannot anticipate what
information will be needed and the need for the information is usually very time critical. The
Board plans to continue conducting the ad hoc surveys as needed and anticipates that it will
conduct five ad hoc surveys per year, contacting about 10 respondents per survey with an 80%
response rate.

Procedures for Collecting Information
The Board conducts ad hoc surveys throughout the year when the need arises. Due to the
informal nature of these surveys, the good working relationships with many of the respondents,
the small number of respondents per survey, and the use of phone and email instead of mailing
paper surveys, the Board typically needs only a few days to design the survey and collect the
responses. Statistical methods will vary from survey to survey.
Methods to Maximize Response
Due to consistently high response rates to surveys, no additional methods to maximize
response rates used.
Testing of Procedures
There has been no pretesting of procedures for these surveys. Methods for previous
surveys have varied depending on the collection goals.

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