Locality Pay
Union decries end to retention pay at embattled Illinois prison
Labor leaders at Federal Correctional Institute Thomson said the Bureau of Prisons’ termination of a short-lived initiative to retain employees at the rural facility with a 25% boost to pay will cause hundreds to leave the agency.
OPM finalizes new locality pay areas ahead of 2024 pay raise
The combination of creating four new locality pay areas and a broad update to underlying maps means that around 33,300 federal workers will see larger pay raises beginning next year.
Democrats reintroduce bill to improve locality pay for some federal jobs
The Locality Pay Equity Act would ensure that locality pay determinations, currently bifurcated between the General Schedule and Federal Wage System pay scales, would be consistent for most federal employees.
Pay Agent: Locality pay increases, when implemented, need to be calculated specifically to job skills
But annual pay adjustments by profession is a long-running organizational idea that has been too difficult to actually implement, one expert says.
President’s Pay Agent OKs another tweak to locality pay areas
The counties of Clallam and Jefferson in Washington state could be included in the Seattle-Tacoma locality pay area as early as 2025.
Pay compression: One expert says a current bill would help, but deeper changes are still needed
“The relatively low pay for very skilled, very experienced workers is a serious problem,” says James L. Perry, professor emeritus of public administration at the University of Indiana.
Bill to alleviate federal pay compression introduced by House Dems
The Pay Compression Relief Act would effectively allow General Schedule employees to receive annual increases to both basic and locality pay, even if they have already hit the federal pay cap.
A basic flaw in the federal pay system
COMMENTARY | The system wasn’t designed to be competitive with the private sector, and that’s a problem in today’s job market.
Extra pay raises are coming to nearly 33,000 feds next year, thanks to new locality pay rules
The Office of Personnel Management has proposed regulations to create four new locality pay areas, along with a comprehensive map update adding dozens of jurisdictions to existing pay regions.
Implement locality pay changes quickly, salary council urges OPM
The annual list of recommendations, made in February but made public this month, did not alter the map of locality pay areas, but reiterated the importance of proposals already tentatively approved by the Biden administration.
Union to Defense Chief: You Aren't Using Your Own Employees Enough to Help Meet Global Threats
AFGE called on the Biden administration and Congress to align the Federal Wage System’s locality pay map with that of the General Schedule and advance legislation to improve Defense Department civilian police pay.
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Pay Caps: Fed Exec Lobby Group Says Reform Is Past Due
“We are stuck with a personnel system mostly put together too many decades ago,” says a policy chief for the Senior Executives Association.
The President’s Pay Agent Has Approved Four New Locality Pay Areas
The annual report from the leaders of OMB, OPM and the Labor Department also authorized a number of tweaks to the criteria that govern which regions are eligible to be added to the map of locality pay areas.
Here’s What Still Needs to Happen for Feds to Get Their 2023 Pay Raise
Although there’s only a month left in the year, there are still a number of things that must be done to finalize an average 4.6% pay hike for civilian federal workers in January.
Locality Pay Tweaks, Proposed Social Security Benefit Changes and More
A weekly roundup of pay and benefits news.
A Closer Look at the Locality Pay Increase That Could Be Coming for Thousands of Feds
A weekly roundup of pay and benefits news.
A Recently Reconstituted Advisory Panel Is Finally Making Locality Pay Recommendations
According to the Federal Salary Council, federal employees made 22.47% less on average than their private sector counterparts last year.
As Lawmakers Talk Big Pay Raises, Managers Bemoan Pay Compression
According to the Congressional Research Service, the cap on General Schedule pay is now impacting pay raises in 30 different locality pay areas across the country.
More Than 60 Democratic Lawmakers Want a 5.1% Raise for Feds
The lawmakers asked the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee to override President Biden’s plan to offer an average 4.6% raise for federal employees in 2023.
The Federal Pay Advisory Panel Can Finally Weigh In on Locality Pay and Other Issues Again
Biden nominates members to the Federal Salary Council, allowing it to move forward with compensation-related recommendations.
