Author Archive
Management
O’Malley’s bid to lead Social Security moves forward
The Senate Finance Committee voted Tuesday to advance O’Malley’s nomination to lead the Social Security Administration to the Senate floor for final consideration.
Pay & Benefits
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.
Oversight
Diversity in the federal workforce has improved slightly over the last decade
But Latino representation among federal employees continues to lag behind a nationwide benchmark.
Pay & Benefits
OPM proposes making it easier to approve some recruitment and relocation incentives
Under proposed regulations, the federal government’s HR agency would no longer need to approve waivers of traditional incentive payment caps in advance, potentially speeding up the hiring and relocation processes.
Pay & Benefits
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 & Benefits
TSP board OKs new international fund index, this time without China
A previous effort to move the I Fund to a broader benchmark index, which included investments in Chinese corporations, met opposition from the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers.
Pay & Benefits
The federal pay gap spiked again in 2023
Members of an advisory panel that examines federal employee compensation issues on Tuesday recommended advocating new tactics to combat the federal-private sector pay disparity as well as pay compression.
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Workforce
‘I want to work myself out of a job’: How two FLRA officials are responsible for resolving hundreds of labor-management disputes
The Federal Labor Relations Authority’s Collaboration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Office makes a big impact, despite a tiny organizational chart.
Workforce
OPM issues guidelines on military spouse executive order
Telework, leave policies and “compassionate transfers” between agencies should all be utilized to recruit and retain spouses of members of the military and reserve services, officials said.
Pay & Benefits
Senate version of bill to standardize retiree COLAs emerges
The reintroduction of the Equal COLA Act by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., comes just weeks after the 2024 cost of living adjustment announcement revived complaints about how the government calculates annual increases across retirement systems.
Workforce
Union coalition throws support behind OPM’s anti-Schedule F rules
A group of 14 labor organizations led by the National Treasury Employees Union urged the federal government’s HR agency to adopt its proposal to hamstring future efforts to strip feds’ job protections “promptly.”
Workforce
OPM: Federal workers’ morale, engagement rebounded in 2023
Preliminary data from the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey indicates that federal agencies have improved on employees’ engagement, job satisfaction, as well as issues of diversity and inclusion.
Pay & Benefits
OPM begins prep for annual retirement surge
The federal government’s centralized HR office is urging federal agencies to be proactive in ensuring federal workers’ retirement applications are submitted without errors to streamline processing during the annual spike in claims.
Management
O’Malley vows to listen to frontline Social Security workers
President Biden’s pick to lead the embattled Social Security Administration said many of the agency’s challenges can be alleviated by a change in culture.
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Management
A tall task awaits O’Malley at Social Security
If confirmed, the former governor faces a likely uphill battle to lobby Congress for funding and to reverse a decades-long decline in staffing to alleviate workloads for a workforce in crisis.
Pay & Benefits
TSP funds’ tumble continues into October
Once again, only one portfolio in the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program finished last month in the black.
Pay & Benefits
TSP: SECURE 2.0 Act contribution limit changes coming in 2026
The federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program will use the entire two-year “transition period” to implement new rules governing how older workers can make catch-up contributions as they approach retirement.
Pay & Benefits
Senate panel advances measures to overhaul federal workers’ death benefits, agency customer service
The money families of federal workers who die while on the job receive in gratuity and funerary benefits has not been updated since 1997.
Workforce
‘There’s no fat left to trim’: FLRA chairwoman warns of possible furloughs in 2024
The agency tasked with overseeing labor-management relations in the federal government had a smaller budget in fiscal 2023 than it did in 2004.
Pay & Benefits