OPM has issued guidance but has indicated that more is coming on a provision enacted in a funding bill for this fiscal year that requires agencies to make up the difference between federal salaries and military pay for employees who are called up to active military duty.
The provision was enacted after years of back and forth over the idea, which proponents argued is in line with practices of many private sector employers and is badly needed by many workers who receive much less in their military roles than as federal civilian employees. However, agencies resisted, since the payments will amount to an additional charge against salary accounts that will pose a challenge to managers.
The guidance said that eligible civilian employees receive for each covered biweekly pay period a supplemental payment equal to the amount by which civilian basic pay exceeds (if at all) military pay and allowances allocable to the given period. Civilian basic pay for this purpose is the basic pay (including locality-based comparability payments under 5 U.S.C. 5304 and special rate supplements under 5 U.S.C. 5305) the employee would have received for his or her civilian employment if that employment had not been interrupted. Military pay and allowances are payments payable to the employee for active duty service allocable to the given pay period.
Leave provisions such as military leave, annual or sick leave, compensatory time off, or other forms of paid leave remain available for use, if they are otherwise eligible. However, the supplemental payment provisions does not apply during any period for which the employee receives any kind of paid leave or other paid time off.
While the provision was effective with the pay period beginning March 15, OPM said, further guidance is still needed on issues including the precise types of both civilian and military pay affected, how to reconcile differences in military and civilian pay periods, how military payroll information will be shared with civilian payroll providers, the impact on benefits, if any, and how the new statute interacts with the existing authority for income replacement payments under other laws.