General Circular No. 001377

To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: Definition of Professional Level Jobs

Issue Date: November 10, 1999

The Department of Civil Service recently surveyed state agencies to determine whether we should make a change in our policy defining professional level jobs. Currently, a classified job is considered professional level if either of two conditions is met:

1. The job requires at least a baccalaureate degree or substitutions as an educational requirement and has a factor rating of "5" or higher on the Education job factor in the Job Factor Evaluation system, or
2. The job has a factor evaluated GS-level of GS-15 or higher. If the job has a market rate of GS-15 but its factor evaluation level is below GS-15, it is not considered professional level.

Some agencies proposed that we consider changing the second of the two criteria listed above so that any job with a GS-level of GS-15 or higher would be considered professional level regardless of whether the GS-15 was based on factor evaluation or on a market grade adjustment. Although this might allow some relatively low level jobs (e.g., Maintenance Foreman, Mobile Equipment Shop Foreman, Carpenter Foreman, Plumber/Pipefitter Foreman) to be considered professional level, it would make the system easier to apply without having to remember or look up whether a job has a market grade.

The results of the survey were a fifty-fifty split. Of twenty-nine agencies responding by the November 1, 1999 deadline fourteen favored the change, fourteen wanted to leave things as they are with no change, and one had no opinion. Analyzing results further by looking at major agencies only or agencies that employed the largest number of affected job classes; we still found a fifty-fifty split. Under these circumstances we have decided to make no changes in the policy at this time.

Sincerely,

Allen H. Reynolds

Director