Higher grade IT workers feel cheated by new pay scale

Not everyone responded warmly to Friday's announcement by the Office of Personnel Management that information technology workers will receive fatter pay checks beginning in January.

That's because the new pay scale applies only to certain positions at grades GS-5 through GS-12. The occupational series that are covered are computer specialists (GS-334), computer engineers (GS-854) and computer scientists (GS-1550).

Several IT workers at grades GS-13 and higher, and several in different IT occupational series, wrote to GovExec.com to say they felt cheated by the announcement.

OPM drew upon several sources of information to come up with the new rates. Among them were agency IT staffing data, demographic information from OPM's central personnel data file and non-federal salary surveys.

What they discovered was that turnover rates were most severe at lower, entry-level grades. They also concluded that not enough data existed to justify giving the raise to other IT-related occupational series, such as GS-301, GS-391, GS-511, and GS-301. "In addition, not all jobs in these occupational series involve IT-related work," OPM said.

"Although we are not authorizing higher pay at grade GS-13 or above, we will continue to monitor the IT staffing situation to determine whether these special rates should be expanded," Henry Romero, OPM's associate director for workforce compensation and performance, said in a memo to agency human resources directors.

Olga Grkavac, executive vice president of the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va., said the pay raise was welcome news, but questioned why higher grade workers were left out. "We would prefer that it included all levels, all government workers that are IT-related," she said, noting that upper-level IT workers are often lured away by lucrative private sector salaries.

Carol Bonosaro, Senior Executives Association president, agreed that the pay solution should be more comprehensive, rather than piecemeal. "That ensures that we will move from crisis to crisis instead of developing a workable solution at all levels, including the Senior Executive Service, where 60% of the corps is all capped at the same salary," she said.

IT workers at grades GS-13 and above and in other occupational series shouldn't despair, OPM said. Agencies can request higher special rates for specialties, grade levels, and geographic areas that might warrant special consideration. Still, special consideration will be given only to positions that involve "a preponderance of IT work," OPM said. Information on how to request a special salary rate is on OPM's Web site at www.opm.gov/oca.

In addition, Romero encouraged agencies to use other flexibilities, such as recruitment, relocation and retention bonuses to address IT staffing needs. Information on these programs is online at www.opm.gov/demos.

New pay tables have not yet been released for those who are receiving the pay hike. That's because the special pay scale that has been established for these IT workers is based on the across-the-board pay raise and locality pay raises for General Schedule employees for 2001. Those rates have not yet been determined by law, but the across-the-board raise is expected to be 3.7 percent.

Once the overall and locality pay raises are set, OPM will post the new pay schedules on its Web site at www.opm.gov/oca.

In the meantime, IT workers covered by the pay hike can get an idea of what their raise will be. The projected raises assume a 3.7 percent overall average GS pay increase in January 2001.

The special rates are grouped into six geographic clusters, which are based on the 32 locality pay areas:

Cluster A: All geographic areas outside the 48 contiguous states, including Alaska, Hawaii and overseas areas
Cluster B: Orlando, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Huntsville, Kansas City, Richmond, Dayton, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland
Cluster C: Columbus, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Miami and San Diego
Cluster D: Denver, Boston, Hartford, Chicago and Detroit
Cluster E: New York, Los Angeles and Houston
Cluster F: San Francisco

Cluster assignments are based on official duty station, as marked on the employee's most recent notification of personnel action form. Here's a look at the projected salary rates for the six clusters.

OPM has posted questions and answers to common questions about the new pay raises online at www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2000/2000-14Q.htm. Additional questions can be directed to the pay and leave administration division at (202) 606-2858 or by email at payleave@opm.gov.