Locality Pay Expansion Rejected

Five metropolitan areas that had been under consideration to become separate localities in the general schedule locality pay system will remain as part of the “rest of the U.S.” locality at least for 2002, under a decision by the President’s Pay Agent. Under orders from Congress, the Pay Agent had been considering adding as separate localities Austin, Texas, Las Vegas, Louisville, Ky., Nashville, Tenn., and Raleigh, N.C. But the Pay Agent, consisting of the heads of the Office of Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget and Labor Department, determined that the salary survey data available in those areas was not complete enough. The Agent’s determination, though, did hold out some hope that those areas would become separate localities in the future after the Labor Department finishes overhauling the salary survey methodology it uses. Proponents of additional locality areas hope that new areas will carry locality pay raises higher than the catchall RUS area’s increase.