locality pay

The Federal Salary Council is still debating a series of controversial changes to the methodology currently used to set federal employee locality pay.

It’s very likely, especially if you haven’t changed plans in the past few years or are retired, that you are paying more in premiums than necessary.

Monday’s column got the attention of a lot of readers, especially those at the top step of the top grade — GS-15. Unfortunately, says Mike Causey, the explanation was mostly wrong.

Given that 2020 is a critical election year, and the number of federal workers in many congressional districts, any federal pay raise is a big deal.

Earlier this year, the chances of both (or either) a federal pay raise and a separate cost of living adjustment for retirees were hovering somewhere between slim and slimmer. The president called for a zero…

Workers in the Washington-Baltimore locality pay area are paid considerably more than feds in the same grade, doing the same job, in Kansas City, where the USDA plans to relocate two bureaus.

Turns out the plan to move Washington-based civil servants closer to the geographic areas they deal with, and the taxpayers they serve, isn’t as cut-and-dried as getting a new Amazon facility.

Three members of the Federal Salary Council have made their official recommendations to the President’s pay agent suggesting how to improve the way government evaluates and compensates federal employees.

The amount of the 2020 white collar federal pay raise will range anywhere from zero to 3.1% if federal unions and Democrats in the House have their way.

Federal employees in the six newly established locality pay areas may be disappointed with the payout from their 2019 retroactive raises.