The Senior Foreign Service (SFS) comprises the top four ranks of the United States Foreign Service. These ranks were created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and Executive Order 12293 in order to provide the Foreign Service with senior grades equivalent to general and flag ranks in the military and naval establishments, respectively, and to grades in the Senior Executive Service. Like military ranks and other Foreign Service ranks, the Senior Foreign Service grade system assigns rank in person, not rank in position.
Grade structure
The four grades, from highest to lowest, with their military and former Senior Executive Service equivalents (i.e., prior to the SES's shift to an open-range compensation system), are:
Only one of these ranks, Career Ambassador, is established by law. The Foreign Service Act of 1980 stipulates, "The President may, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, confer the personal rank of career ambassador upon a career member of the Senior Foreign Service in recognition of especially distinguished service over a sustained period." Otherwise, the 1980 Act states the President shall "prescribe salary classes for the Senior Foreign Service and shall prescribe an appropriate title for each class." President Ronald Reagan established the other three Senior Foreign Service ranks with Executive Order 12293.
Protocol
According to McCaffree's Protocol: The Complete Handbook of Diplomatic, Official & Social Usage, Career Ministers of the Senior Foreign Service are to be accorded the honorific "The Honorable". Career Ambassadors, as ambassadors, are accorded the honorific "Her/His Excellency".
Pay scale
The Senior Foreign Service pay system is an open-range, performance-based pay system that is linked to the Senior Executive Service (SES) pay system. SFS members, like SES members, are not entitled to automatic across-the-board increases and locality-based comparability payments. Instead, pay adjustments are based on a member's individual performance and/or contribution to the agency's performance.
As amended under 5 U.S.C. 5376, Executive Order 12293 prescribes three SFS salary classes linked to the Executive Schedule, ranging from 120 percent of the pay rate for a GS-15, step 1 to the pay rate for ES-II:
Career Minister (CM) with a pay cap equal to the rate of pay for ES-II (Note: Career Ambassador (CA) SFS members are also paid within the CM rate range);
Minister-Counselor (MC) with a pay cap equal to 1.07 times the rate of pay for ES-III; and
Counselor (OC) with a pay cap equal to 1.02 times the rate of pay for ES-III.
The Executive Order originally prescribed three SFS salary classes linked to the SES as follows:
Career Minister (CM) with a range from 94 percent of the rate payable to level III of the Executive Schedule to 100 percent of the rate payable to level II of the Executive Schedule;
Minister-Counselor (MC) with a range from 90 percent of the rate payable to level III of the Executive Schedule to 100 percent of the rate payable to level III of the Executive Schedule; and
Counselor (OC), with a range from 120 percent of the rate payable to GS–15, step 1 to 100 percent of the rate payable to level III of the Executive Schedule.
Prior to creation of the Senior Foreign Service (i.e., prior to implementation of the Foreign Service Act of 1980) Career Ministers were paid at the same rate as Class 1 Foreign Service Officers. In 1979, an FSO-1 earned from $61,903 to $65,750 per annum, with the caveat that civil service and Foreign Service salaries were capped at $50,112.50 per annum, equal to the pay rate for Level V of the Executive Schedule, per Section 5308 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code. The top theoretical annual salary, $65,750, was equal to that of a GS-18.
History
Prior to passage of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, the Rogers Act and subsequently the Foreign Service Act of 1946 had established a grade system from FSS-22 up to FSO-1. A single "senior" grade, Career Minister, was established by the 1946 Act for Foreign Service Officers who had served with noteworthy distinction in ambassadorships or other, equivalent positions (usually as Assistant Secretary or Under Secretary of State). Since Career Ministers were paid at the same rate as senior FSO-1s, however, the "promotion" was merely symbolic.