Key Geographic Measures Changed

The Office of Management and Budget has expanded and revised its listing of the metropolitan statistical boundary lines used for numerous government purposes including the general schedule locality pay system. The changes, reflecting data from the 2000 census, include the addition of 49 new metropolitan zones, bringing the total number to 370. The GS pay system consists of 31 metropolitan areas plus a catchall “rest of the U.S.” locality for areas not within one of those zones. While the GS locality system’s boundaries generally track the statistical areas as determined by OMB, there are some exceptions, largely involving federal facilities or counties with large numbers of federal workers lying just outside an OMB-determined statistical area.