As long as you base compensation on what someone else is getting, you will have a self perpetuating spiral upwards. That is why the system is designed that way. So bureaucrats can justify ever increasing ridiculous levels of compensation. They've rigged the system. Once we get back to compensating people based on what they contribute, we will begin to see some sanity.
I gauge compensation based on competition with private industry in California.
With this move, I think salaries are being decreased below the level of competence adequate to perform the job.
That concerns me.
Who, in your mind, should set their salaries based on “contribution”?