Pay grade

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A pay grade is a unit in systems of monetary compensation for employment. It is commonly used in public service, both civil and military, but also for companies of the private sector. Pay grades facilitate the employment process by providing a fixed framework of salary ranges, as opposed to a free negotiation. Typically, pay grades encompass two dimensions: a “vertical” range where each level corresponds to the responsibility of, and requirements needed for a certain position; and a “horizontal” range within this scale to allow for monetary incentives rewarding the employee's quality of performance or length of service. Thus, an employee progresses within the horizontal and vertical ranges upon achieving positive appraisal on a regular basis. In most cases, evaluation is done annually and encompasses more than one method.

Important employers to use pay grades include:

• U.S. uniformed services pay grades
• U.S. Government pay grades
• United States Foreign Service^[1]
• United Nations

In parts of the English-speaking world, it may be said that an answer to a given question is "above one's pay grade" (or "beyond one's pay grade"). This is intended to convey that the respondent is not qualified or authorised to answer said question, and it must be referred to a higher (and implicitly higher-paid) authority for a definitive response.^{[citation needed]}

• Job evaluation – Procedures to identify content of a job activities, attributes or requirements to performPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets (used to determine which pay grade should apply to a specific type of job, irrespective of who does it).
• Equal pay – Concept of labour rightsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets that people doing jobs of equal value should be awarded equally, irrespective of race or gender.

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