Escape From Flyover Land

At cocktail parties where they sip Chardonnay and pretend to really like eating raw fish, members of the elite decry the loutish behavior of their loutish countrymen in Flyover Land. The self-proclaimed Golden Ones dislike, or pity, folks who live in places like Kansas, Tennessee and Utah.

I mean, really…

Flyover Land is the large area between the East and West Coasts of the U.S. It takes in most states, and most of the nation’s population. The fact that it contains some of the most beautiful spots in America, and some of our nicer, smarter, citizens, misses the point. If you aren’t within a couple hours drive of the Atlantic or Pacific you are, poor thing, sort of a loser. Poor things! We feel your pain. Yeah, right!

Uncle Sam has a version of Flyover Land. It is called RUS which stands for Rest of U.S. RUS includes some pretty sophisticated places, like Austin, Texas. And some fairly big places, like Norfolk, Va., and Omaha.

Feds in RUS make less money, even if they are doing the same thing and are at the same pay grade and longevity step, as their counterparts in other places. And year after year they get smaller January pay raises than their colleagues in cities that are under the locality pay system. A GS 13 step 5 in Houston, for example, makes $99,080 while his/her pay-grade-job twin in Austin, which is just down the road a piece, gets $88,028. For that matter Houston pays better than Washington, D.C., for which the going rate for that grade is $94,025.

How do you know if you are in the locality pay loop, or out in the cold in RUS? Check this list. If you don’t work in any of these areas, you are out in the cold: you are a RUS, the federal equivalent of Flyover Land.

Localtity Pay Areas:

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL
Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-NH-RI-ME
Buffalo-Niagara-Cattaraugus, NY
Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI
Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN
Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, OH
Columbus-Marion-Chillicothe, OH
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Dayton-Springfield-Greenville, OH
Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO
Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI
Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT-MA
Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX
Huntsville-Decatur, AL
Indianapolis-Anderson-Columbus, IN
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI
Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI
New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA
Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA
Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC
Richmond, VA
Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Yuba City, CA-NV
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA
Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA

Wanting In

Currently the government is studying requests from 14 regions who want to be in the locality loop so their feds will get bigger raises each year. They include Albuquerque, Austin, Bakersfield, Calif., Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tx., Berkshire County, Mass., Charlottesville, Va., Colorado Springs, Logan County Ohio, Mechanicsburg, Pa., Polk County, Tex., Portland, Maine and Wilmington, N.C.

A decision could come fairly soon. In the past, several places, like Raleigh-Durham and Buffalo, made a case for being included in the loop. But others, like Louisville and Las Vegas, were left out in the cold. Stay tuned to see which areas make it inside the loop.

Meantime if you want to see how the January 2008 pay raises played out for areas inside and outside RUS, click here.

To see how your salary stacks up with feds in other cities, click here.

Nearly Useless Factoid

Thomas Jefferson, fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German, had a lisp… Presumably in all of them.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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