Many Could Get Larger Boost in Pay

The similar orders of the last two years specified that the increase was to be paid across the board, with no breakout for a locality component. However, it’s generally expected that some or maybe even all of the increase for 2016 would be designated as locality pay in order to start the planned 13 new GS localities (Albany, Albuquerque, Austin, Charlotte, Colorado Springs, Davenport, Harrisburg, Kansas City, Laredo, Las Vegas, Palm Bay, St. Louis and Tucson). Rules to create those new localities have not yet been finalized, but the draft plan projected that 102,000 employees working in those areas would be affected, under the proposed boundaries. Employees in those areas currently are being paid at the lowest of the locality rates, the catchall “rest of the U.S.” rate; by being in a specific locality their pay would get an additional boost. Exactly how much wouldn’t be determined until new pay comparison figures are announced, which typically happens in October–precise rates aren’t set until a year-end executive order. In addition, under the proposed rules, 21 of the existing 31 metro localities would be expanded, by bringing in certain outlying areas. That change would be based on new commuting data used as the basis for extending localities beyond standard statistical metropolitan measures and would result in still larger pay raises for employees working in those added areas, as well. The proposal did not specify how many employees would benefit from that, although an earlier estimate by an advisory body put the number above 20,000. However, the proposed rules added that “the addition of new areas results in a smaller amount to allocate for locality pay increases in existing areas “–in other words, the extra boost for some would come at the cost of smaller raises in existing localities that would have been paid otherwise. How much smaller also is to be determined.