Pay and reward in the Civil Service

Like all good employers, the Civil Service aims to offer a fair and flexible pay and reward package.

Organisation of pay

There are two distinctive features about the way people are paid in the Civil Service.

• Civil Service organisations have responsibility for their own pay, grading and performance management arrangements for staff (except the Senior Civil Service).

• There is an almost universal system of individual performance pay.

This is different to the way the wider public sector generally works. For example, pay for National Health Service workers, local authorities, teachers, police and fire services are subject to national pay bargaining arrangements. In contrast, each Civil Service department and agency negotiates pay for its own staff.

Departments were granted full delegation for terms and conditions in the 1990s. Performance-related pay was also introduced around the same time to establish a closer link between performance and reward.

• Email a friend