And All Our Employees Are Above Average--DOD

From Government Executive:

According to figures issued by the Pentagon on Wednesday, 98 percent of the more than 170,000 employees rated under the National Security Personnel System received performance-based payouts for 2009, meaning their supervisors graded their work as a 3 or better out of five possible points. The majority of those employees -- 55.4 percent -- earned a rating of 3, defining them as valued performers.

I'm overly cynical, since the best year I ever had, in terms of accomplishments, was the worst year according to my boss's evaluation. Designing a good pay system is hard, particularly when the bureaucracy being evaluated doesn't produce measurable outputs. Look at the pay system for investment bankers.