Locality Pay
OPM set to finalize rules standardizing General Schedule, blue collar locality pay maps
The final rule implementing the long-requested adjustment to the Federal Wage System’s map of wage areas won’t be published until after President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
Feds in 2024 made almost a quarter less than their private sector peers
The Federal Salary Council, which reported the disparity, also recommended creating new locality pay areas in Kennewick-Richland-Walla Walla, Wash., and Syracuse-Auburn, N.Y.
A Senate bill targeting teleworkers’ locality pay now has its companion in the House
Legislation introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., would bar federal workers from receiving locality pay if they telework at least once per week, a move that could amount to a 30% pay cut for many feds.
GAO: Agency HR offices need better communication with officials in remote posts
Federal officials in Alaska, Hawaii and the United States’ various offshore territories said they struggle to combat high attrition at federal jobs in the non-contiguous U.S., despite some agencies’ efforts.
OPM moves to standardize General Schedule, blue collar locality pay areas
For years, federal employee unions have bemoaned that the pay systems’ differing maps of high-cost regions created pay inequity within agency workforces.
Senators push to avert pay cliff looming over overseas Foreign Service officers in stopgap spending deal
Foreign Service officers stationed outside the U.S. could see an average pay cut of 22% if the provision undergirding legislation aimed at ensuring commensurate pay between overseas federal workers and their domestically located counterparts is not reauthorized.
Biden formally announces 2% average pay raise for feds in 2025
The president each August must declare an “economic emergency” to prevent large automatic increases to locality pay from taking effect, in accordance with the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act.
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.
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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.
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.
