State Civil Service

State civil service jobs are all the jobs that come under the government sector except for uniformed jobs such as the army, navy, and air force. The jobs include the executive, judicial and legislative sections of the government. Most of the state civil service jobs are merit based and earned after extremely competitive examinations. This is practiced for the lower post in the state civil service. The senior posts such as important agencies and executive positions are given to politically appointed persons. However, at the beginning of the 1800s the state civil service jobs were awarded by the president and could be taken away at any time.

The state civil service is divided into two main categories; the competitive service and the excepted service. The competitive service is where job candidates need to go through rigorous testing in order to be accepted. Almost all state civil service jobs in the executive branch. Except for jobs that are specially exempted from the competitive service by statute, jobs that are nominated by the United Sates Senate, and jobs in the Senior Executive Service. People employed through the competitive service are given a significant amount of rights to protect their positions, while the government maintains its control over the employees.

The excepted service mainly consists of the national security and intelligence areas of the state civil service. The most popular divisions of the excepted service are the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA). The main difference between jobs in the excepted service and those in the competitive service is the lack of the employee’s rights under the excepted service. When it comes to being fired or being disciplined on the job, members of the excepted service are no given letter thirty days ahead and the right to a trial.

The salaries of the state civil service workers tend to be higher than those of the private sector. In addition to their base pay, members of the state civil service receive additional benefits depending on the state they live in. The General Schedule is the pay scale that is used by the executive members of the civil service, whereas the lower positions use a Wage Grade pay scale. Other agencies such as the Federal Reserve System have developed their own pay scale.

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created three agencies to monitor the State civil service. Each agency is responsible for different areas. Together they make sure that employees are not treated unfairly, guiding the various agencies within the state civil service, and overlooks the rights of employees of the state civil service. The main cause behind this act was to make sure the state civil service does not encourage incompetency.