FR29_20231028_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Compensation and Salary Surveys
(FR 29; OMB No. 7100-0290)
Summary
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), under authority
delegated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has extended for three years, with
revision, the Compensation and Salary Surveys (FR 29; OMB No. 7100-0290). This family of
surveys is currently comprised of the (1) Compensation and Salary Survey (FR 29a) and (2) Ad
Hoc Surveys (FR 29b). The FR 29a is collected biennially and the FR 29b1 is collected on an as
needed basis, not more frequently than five times per year. These surveys collect information on
salaries, employee compensation policies, and other employee programs from employers that are
considered competitors of the Board. The data from the surveys primarily are used to determine
the appropriate salary structure and salary adjustments for Board employees.
The Board revised the FR 29 to no longer include the FR 29a, as it was determined not to
be subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).2
The current estimated total annual burden for the FR 29 is 260 hours, and would decrease
to 50 hours. The revisions would result in a decrease of 210 hours. There is no formal reporting
form for this information collection.
Background and Justification
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 support of market-sensitive adjustments to the salary structure, the Board participates
in and purchases the results of the Compensation and Salary Survey (FR 29a). Between 1989 and
Certain criteria apply to information collections conducted via the Board’s ad hoc clearance process. Such
information collections shall (1) be vetted by the Board’s clearance officer, as well as the Division director
responsible for the information collection, (2) display the OMB control number, (3) inform respondents that the
information collection has been approved, (4) be used only in such cases where response is voluntary, (5) not be
used to substantially inform regulatory actions or policy decisions, (6) be conducted only and exactly as described in
the OMB submission, (7) involve only noncontroversial subject matter that will not raise concerns for other Federal
agencies, (8) include a detailed justification of the effective and efficient statistical survey methodology (if
applicable), and (9) collect personally identifiable information (PII) only to the extent necessary (if collecting
sensitive PII, the form must display current Privacy Act notice). In addition, for each information collection
instrument, respondent burden will be tracked and submitted to OMB.
2
The Board does not sponsor or collect any of the data related to the FR 29a but instead participates as a respondent
and then purchases the results of the survey.
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1992, the Board conducted the survey, and in 1993 the survey was assigned to a consultant. The
consulting firm of Willis Towers Watson (formerly known as Watson Wyatt) conducted the
survey annually from 1994 to 2014. Beginning in 2015, the Financial Institutions Reform,
Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) agencies agreed to a biennial survey
schedule.3
The Board, along with other FIRREA agencies,4 have participated in the FR 29a survey
jointly since 2008. The Board purchases the survey data and uses it as a basis for proposed salary
range adjustments and merit increases for Board employees so that salary ranges are competitive
with other organizations offering similar jobs. The Board also uses (1) published data from
consultants such as Mercer, Inc. (Mercer), and Gartner, Inc., to supplement its information
concerning specific job families (such as information technology jobs), (2) merit projection
surveys conducted by consulting firms such as Willis Towers Watson, Aon Hewitt Associates,
and Mercer, and (3) data collected by Reserve Banks and the FIRREA agencies.
In order to fill unanticipated staffing needs and to assist in human resources policy
planning, the Board conducts more limited surveys (FR 29b) on an ad hoc basis. These surveys
gather information that is needed between biennial salary surveys or information on topics that
are not covered by the biennial survey. For example, this may include information on the average
salaries paid, hiring rates, and job descriptions for certain job families. The ad hoc 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 or
acquires through the FR 29 surveys. As noted above, this published information is used to
supplement the FR 29 data, which focus on jobs comparable to those of Board employees.
It is mission critical for the Board to be able to attract and retain talent. The survey data
serves a vital role to ensure that the Board’s pay rates remain competitive with the external
market. Numerous survey sources are required to validate the accuracy of the external market
data. This information is not available from other sources.
Description of Information Collection
The Board uses the FR 29a survey data to aid in the annual adjustment of the salary
structure. The consultant that conducts the FR 29a biennial survey is selected competitively for a
two-year contract. The Board conducts other surveys (FR 29b) on special topics on an ad hoc
basis.
3

Congress granted the FIRREA agencies flexibility to establish their own compensation systems recognizing that
the existing approach to compensating employees could impede these agencies’ ability to recruit and retain
employees critical to meeting their organizational missions. In addition to the flexibility provided to the agencies
over the years, Congress also directed most of the agencies to seek to maintain pay comparability and to consult
with each other in doing so to ensure the agencies do not compete with each other for employees. (See, e.g., section
1206 of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, Pub. L. No. 101-73.)
4
For purposes of this proposal, the FIRREA agencies consist of the Board, Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, Farm Credit Administration, and Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Compensation and Salary Survey (FR 29a)
The FR 29a requests information in five sections on a biennial basis: general information,
organization data, salary policies and practices, benefits programs, and salary data. The
information includes salary ranges, average salaries paid, merit increases, average work weeks
(hours worked), benefit programs, and bonuses. These categories are typical of third-party
compensation and salary surveys. The benchmark jobs cover the work performed in every
division at the Board, by position and grade level.
Ad Hoc Surveys (FR 29b)
In addition to the biennial surveys, the Board conducts other surveys (FR 29b) during the
year as needed to collect information on specific salary and non-salary employment topics that
affect Board employees. Recent examples of salary topics included top executive salaries and
compensation budgets (e.g., merit increases and salary structure movement) to aid in recruiting
and retention issues. Recent examples of non-salary topics included workforce planning,
telecommuting, and leave policy. Also, other survey topics included turnover data, compensation
philosophy, and relocation.
The process of designing and conducting these ad hoc surveys is informal. The Board
conducts the ad hoc surveys by phone and email from a subset of these respondents. The Board
cannot anticipate what information will be needed and the need for the information is usually
very time sensitive. 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 approximately 10
respondents per survey.
Respondent Panel
The FR 29 panel comprises employers considered competitors (e.g., academic
institutions, financial organizations, and monetary authorities) for Board employees.
Frequency and Time Schedule
The FR 29a is biennial and the FR 29b is event generated but not more frequently than
five times per year. 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.
Revisions to the FR 29
The Board will no longer clear the FR 29a, as it has been determined that it is not subject
to the PRA as the Board does not conduct or sponsor the FR 29a. The Board serves as a
participant in the FR 29a and ultimately purchases the data from the FR 29a to meet its needs.

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Public Availability of Data
There are no data related to this information collection available to the public.
Legal Status
The FR 29 is authorized by sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Federal Reserve Act, which
authorizes the Board to determine employees’ compensation (12 U.S.C. §§ 244 and 248(l)).
Survey submissions are voluntary.
Individual responses to the FR 29b may be kept confidential on a case-by-case basis. The
Board will consider whether information collected through these surveys may be kept
confidential under exemption 4 for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which protects
privileged or confidential commercial or financial information (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4)),
exemption 6, which protects information “the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6)) or any other applicable FOIA
exemption.
Consultation Outside the Agency
The Board consults with other FIRREA agencies before requesting or completing data
calls relating to the FR 29b.
Public Comments
On May 15, 2023, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register (88 FR
30973) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, with revision, of the FR 29. The
comment period for this notice expired on July 14, 2023. The Board did not receive any
comments. The Board adopted the extension, with revision, of the FR 29 as originally proposed.
On September 11, 2023, the Board published a final notice in the Federal Register (88 FR
62370).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
As shown in the table below, the estimated total annual burden for the FR 29 is 260
hours, and would decrease to 50 hours with the revisions. The estimated number of respondents
is based on recent response rates. In recent years, the Board has conducted, on average, five ad
hoc surveys with an average of 10 respondents per survey. These reporting requirements
represent less than 1 percent of the Board’s total paperwork burden.

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FR 29

Estimated
number of
respondents5

Estimated
annual
frequency

Estimated
Estimated
average hours annual burden
per response
hours

35
10

1
5

6
1

210
50
260

10

5

1

50

Current
FR 29a
FR 29b
Current Total
Proposed
FR 29b
Change

( 210)

The estimated total annual cost to the public for the FR 29 is $17,225, and would
decrease to $3,313 with the revisions.6
Sensitive Questions
These collections of information contain no questions of a sensitive nature, as defined by
OMB guidelines.
Estimate of Cost to the Federal Reserve System
The estimated cost to the Federal Reserve System for collecting and processing the
FR 29b is negligible.

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Respondents to this collection are chosen on an as-needed basis and cannot be predicted in advance. The
respondents to this collection in the last two years fall under a variety of small business thresholds from $492
million to $28 billion, and that we estimate that none of them would be considered small businesses.
6
Total cost to the responding public is estimated using the following formula: total burden hours, multiplied by the
cost of staffing, where the cost of staffing is calculated as a percent of time for each occupational group multiplied
by the group’s hourly rate and then summed (30% Office & Administrative Support at $22, 45% Financial
Managers at $80, 15% Lawyers at $79, and 10% Chief Executives at $118). Hourly rates for each occupational
group are the (rounded) mean hourly wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment
and Wages, May 2022, published April 25, 2023, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. Occupations
are defined using the BLS Standard Occupational Classification System, https://www.bls.gov/soc/.

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