Figuring Your Locality Pay

Congress has yet to pass a pay raise for federal employees in 2010, but Government Executive's Alyssa Rosenberg writes that the Federal Salary Council has already made its recommendations for locality pay in 2011.

In a memo to agency leaders, the council recommended a 43.75 percent average locality pay rate for federal workers in 2011. That locality rate recommendation does not mean that federal employees will see an average 43.75 percent boost in their pay. Generally, the base salaries of federal jobs in many areas are adjusted by a percentage that changes annually and is designed to reduce the pay gap between federal and private sector salaries in certain occupations. The 43.75 percent figure represents the amount the salary council believes is necessary to reduce the pay disparity to 5 percent.

At its Oct. 19 meeting, the council chose not to make any recommendations about the 2010 or 2011 pay raises because of the competing bills in Congress related to civilian pay. The House in July passed its version of the fiscal 2010 financial services appropriations bill, which would provide federal employees with a 2010 pay increase of 2 percent. The Senate Appropriations Committee included a 2.9 percent pay increase for civilians in its version of the financial services bill. In September, President Obama set an across-the-board pay increase of 2 percent, but he still has the authority to issue an alternative pay plan by Nov. 30.

Stay tuned, as updates on the 2010 pay raise and 2010 locality pay adjustment tables should be coming in the weeks ahead.