No Change in Special COLAs

A study performed for OPM using differing methodology to compute housing costs for federal employees who receive special COLAs in non-foreign areas outside the contiguous 48 states has found no justification for raising the COLA amounts, OPM said in a July 31 Federal Register notice. The COLAs are paid to executive branch and postal employees in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The different methodology was ordered as part of a settlement in a class action suit brought by affected employees.