As compared with a similar report covering 2005, use of incentives was up substantially over the 5,998 incentives to employees of 34 agencies that were worth more than $51 million that year. OPM however cautioned against reading too much into the numbers.
It noted that the 2005 report covered only the latter eight months of that year, since a 2004 law changing many policies regarding the 3Rs kicked in during May of that year. Those changes in sum made it easier for agencies to justify paying the incentives and increased the amounts available in many situations.
The new report also does not include employees who were receiving payments under the prior law and who were “grandfathered” for a period that could continue through April of last year, nor separate authorities for certain agencies, most prominently NASA.
