Locality Raise Split Announced

As expected, President Bush has designated 3.6 percentage points of the January 2002 general schedule locality raise to be paid out across-the-board and the other 1 percentage point to be divided up as locality pay. The effect of that decision is that GS raises-payable with the first full pay period of the calendar year-will range by nearly a percentage point among the 32 localities. Employees working in the highest-paid locality, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, will get 5.42 percent, while employees in the Huntsville, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Orlando and the catchall “rest of the U.S.” localities will get 4.52 percent. Wage-grade employees, who are paid under a separate locality system and who get their raises at varying times, will have their fiscal 2002 raises capped at the GS average amount, which worked out to be 4.8 percent.