beyond one's pay grade
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.15 in modern English
31
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
4
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
prep_phrase
Example Sentences
- "1971, Testimony before U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services, Sir, I think that is a policy decision only the President can make. That is beyond my pay grade."
- "Figuring out how it would work logistically is above and beyond my pay grade and my brain power."
Etymology
Possibly from the correspondence of the pay grade to the level of authority in the U.S. civil service and in the U.S. armed forces.