Fedweek

It now appears that the January 2020 federal employee pay raise will be decided in a House-Senate conference, a decision that likely will result in either a 2.6 percent across the board raise alone, or that plus 0.5 percentage points to be divided up as locality pay.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved its version (S-2524) of the annual general government spending bill that specifies no raise amount. That effectively endorses the 2.6 percent across the board raise that President Trump has said he will set by default in the absence of congressional action by the end of the year.

While Congress has remained silent in some prior years, allowing default figures to take effect, this year the House already has voted in its counterpart bill for the 3.1 percent total in the name of pay parity with military personnel who are in line for that figure. Dividing the additional 0.5 percentage points as locality pay likely would yield raises of several tenths above to several tenths below 3.1; exact figures would be determined later.

It remains possible that a bid for the higher amount will be offered as an amendment in Senate floor voting, although such moves typically are made in committee voting, not floor voting. Several senators active in federal employee issues have said they will push for the Senate conferees to accept the House figure.

The Senate measure, like the House version (HR-3351), would continue the practice of recent years of setting wage grade system raises at the amounts paid to GS employees in their areas, even though there is a separate locality pay system for them.

Also as with the House version, political appointees paid under the Executive Schedule and political SES members would not receive a raise, but the underlying Executive Schedule rates would increase on paper. That would increase those rates for purposes of the pay caps that apply to career SES members, career employees in other pay systems at similar levels, and the cap on GS pay, which affects employees in the top grades of GS-15 in some localities.