Annual Special Rate Review Under Way

The Office of Personnel Management has kicked off the annual process of determining raises for “special rate” employees—white-collar employees paid above the general schedule rate for being in hard-to-fill positions. In a memo to agencies, OPM said that they no longer have to submit documentation to give special rate employees the same raise as general schedule employees get, but only if they want to give a larger or smaller raise. For the most part, special rate employees get the same annual raise as GS employees, plus the higher of the special rate applying to them or the GS locality pay in their area (but not both).