SALARIES: PROFESSIONAL AND HIGHER CATEGORIES
The salaries for staff members of the United Nations common system organizations in the Professional and higher categories are established on the basis of the Noblemaire Principle, which embodies two rules: (i) the salaries shall be based on one global salary scale; and (ii) the salaries shall be sufficient to recruit and retain staff members from Member States where the national civil service salaries are the highest, which has been identified as the United States Federal Civil Service. In addition to the salaries reflected in the global salary scale, an additional amount (Post Adjustment) is paid to account for the difference in prices with New York, local inflation, the normal expenditure pattern of staff members and the exchange rate of the local currency relative to the US Dollar.
Frequently asked questions about salaries in the Professional and higher categories What are the grade levels in the base salary scales for the Professional and higher categories? Professional grades (P-1 to P-5), Directors (D-1 and D-2), and the Assistant Secretary-General and Under Secretary-General levels. Staff members in these categories are recruited internationally from the Member States. How is the Professional and higher categories salary scale determined? To be able to attract all nationals to a UN career, including the highest-paid, the salaries for the Professional and higher categories are set by reference to the highest-paying national civil service of the Member States. The federal civil service of the United States of America is used for comparison; the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) has determined that its size and structure and its pay levels provide a significant comparison with the UN. Periodic equivalency studies are made between the grades of jobs in the United Nations system and those in the comparator civil service. Is the Professional and higher categories salary scale global or local? The base salary scale for staff in these categories is the same worldwide, and applies across the organizations of the common system, as approved by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the ICSC. What are the key components of the Professional and higher categories salaries? The salaries of staff in the Professional and higher categories are made up of a base salary and a post adjustment applicable to the duty station where a staff member is serving, both set in United States dollars. What is post adjustment? Post adjustment is a formula for determining a cost-of-living adjustment in each duty station so that the ‘purchasing power’ of staff members is equivalent across the duty stations (you can afford reasonable housing, goods and services of approximately the same value no matter where you are located). The post adjustment is paid in addition to the base salary. How is the post adjustment for a duty station determined? Living costs are measured through periodic place-to-place surveys conducted by the ICSC at the duty stations every four or five years. The surveys measure the cost-of-living of a duty station relative to the cost-of-living at the base of the system (New York).
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