---
kind: "section"
citation: "22 U.S.C. § 3964"
title: "22"
title_heading: "Foreign Relations and Intercourse"
number: "3964"
heading: "Assignments to salary class"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/22/3964"
units:
  - "Chapter 52 — Foreign Service"
  - "Subchapter IV — Compensation"
---

# §3964. Assignments to salary class

- (a) The [Secretary](/usc/22/3902.md?p=10) shall assign all Foreign Service officers and Foreign Service personnel (other than Foreign Service personnel who are paid in accordance with [section 3967 of this title](/usc/22/3967.md) or [section 3968 of this title](/usc/22/3968.md)) to appropriate salary classes in the Foreign Service Schedule.
- (b)
  - (1) The salary class to which a member of the Service is assigned under this section shall not be affected by the assignment of the member to a position classified under subchapter V.
  - (2) Except as authorized by subchapter I of [chapter 35](/usc/5/chptIII/sptB/ch35.md) of title 5, changes in the salary class of a member of the Senior Foreign Service or a member of the Service assigned to a salary class in the Foreign Service Schedule shall be made only in accordance with subchapter VI. The [Secretary](/usc/22/3902.md?p=10) shall prescribe regulations (which shall be consistent with the relevant provisions of subchapter VI of [chapter 53](/usc/5/chptIII/sptD/ch53.md) of title 5 and with the regulations prescribed to carry out such provisions) providing for retention of pay by members of the Service in cases in which reduction-in-force procedures are applied.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–465, title I, § 404, Oct. 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 2088; Pub. L. 103–236, title I, § 180(a)(3), Apr. 30, 1994, 108 Stat. 415.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1994—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–236 struck out “who are family members of Government employees paid in accordance with a local compensation plan established under” after “section 3967 of this title or”.