Most Special Raters to Get Raises

Most “special rate” employees-white-collar employees who get higher salaries because they hold in-demand positions-are again getting the across-the-board general schedule raise amount in 2004 (1.5 percent, subject to being boosted, probably to 2.7 percent, by a pending budget measure). The Office of Personnel Management made that determination after recommendations by agencies employing some 141,000 special rate employees. Of the 402 special rate schedules existing in 2003, 400 will get the across-the-board raise, one involving certain clerical employees in the Department of Veterans Affairs in Massachusetts will get no increase and one involving Defense Department firefighters in Chicago will be terminated because those positions no longer exist. Special rate employees typically don’t get the locality component of a general schedule raise; they get the higher of their special rate adjustment or the locality adjustment, but not both. In addition, there is a separate special rate category covering nearly 32,000 law enforcement officers who automatically get the same across-the-board increase as GS employees by law.