The Foreign Service Journal, January 2006

change, staffing can be readjusted more easily. Earlier in my Foreign Service days, I was director of the Office of Asylum Affairs in the Bureau of Diplomacy, Human Rights and Labor; that office was also primarily staffed by a group of 15 WAEs. When the department later decided to change the function and composi- tion of the office, there was no requirement for a reduction-in- force; the WAEs were simply “pink- slipped.” The Economics of WAE Employment From the perspective of State budget planners, WAE employment is often economical for the department compared to expanding or hiring from within the career service. Most retirement, health and fringe benefits for WAEs have already been paid by the retirement system, and the employees are only employed when their ser- vices are actually required. This absence of overhead costs makes WAEs about 30 percent cheaper, on an hourly basis, than career employees or contractors. Also, the fact that WAEs are paid on a 2,080-hour (52 x 40) workyear basis makes them available during the 20 per- cent of the workyear that is otherwise lost to holiday leave, annual leave, sick leave and training time for other employees. So, in effect, the WAE employee costs about 50 percent less than an equivalent-grade career employ- ee, when calculated on an hourly basis. These efficiencies do not pass through to the individ- ual bureaus, which must use operational funds to pay WAEs. (HR has reimbursed individual bureaus for some WAE time related to filling gaps created by the departure of volunteers for Iraq and Afghanistan, but such cases are exceptional.) Because the cost of career positions estab- lished for staffing is borne by the central personnel sys- tem, WAE employment is definitely a last resort for bureaus. Also, the buildup of experience and continuity that a career service is designed to provide would be undercut if WAEs were overused. It is impossible to calculate how much WAEs are like- ly to be employed in any given year, as such opportunities depend on emergency needs and funding. If the budget is tightened, as many expect, WAE employment will be reduced. By statute, the sum of what a WAE employee earns in a year and his or her annuity cannot exceed the salary of the WAE job, or the amount the employee was earning at retirement, whichever is greater. (Note that this figure is not adjusted for inflation.) Some longtime Senior Foreign Service retirees hit this salary cap after just a few weeks when working in jobs at lower pay grades, and are effectively available only for short-term assignments. AFSA originally sought an amendment to the Foreign Service Act of 1980 removing restrictions on WAE employment. However, despite our strong advocacy, this proposal gained no traction. Accordingly, we are now working with State to expand the categories of waivers currently available to the Secretary of State on WAE employment. Both in the 108th Congress and the current one, the Senate’s foreign relations authorization bill con- tained this provision. It is awaiting further consideration. A temporary income waiver has been available on a very limited basis for certain national security jobs made nec- essary by the events of 9/11, but the overall cap remains, as does the 1,040-hour annual overall limit. Where WAEs Work Most Foreign Service WAEs work in Washington, but some fill temporary staffing gaps overseas or assist posts during crisis situations. State Department records indi- cate that 1,400 persons are currently registered by 26 dif- ferent bureaus as available for WAE positions, of which 1,088 are actually employed from time to time. The largest single roster is in the Bureau of Administration, which has 225, the majority employed for the purpose of document declassification and Freedom of Information Act requests. Other large rosters are in the functional Bureaus of Consular Affairs (109 WAEs), Diplomatic Security (90), M/DGHR (46), M/IRM (45) and the Office F O C U S 24 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 There are about 1,400 names on decentralized WAE rosters maintained by 26 different State Department regional and functional bureaus. Roger Dankert, a Foreign Service officer from 1970 to 1996, is a retiree member of the AFSA Governing Board. Since retirement, he has worked as a WAE for the Office of the Inspector General and for the Bureau of Political- Military Affairs.