OPM Clarifies Pay Cap Issue

OPM has sent a memo to agencies clarifying the impact of language in the recently enacted budget measure for the remainder of the current fiscal year that made senior political appointees ineligible for the 1 percent 2014 raise. That language was enacted after pay tables had been issued reflecting the raise. The memo says that those higher figures remain the official rates under the Executive Schedule (and for the Vice President) for purposes of various federal employee pay caps, even though the actual payable amounts for affected political officials must remain at 2013 levels; in some cases they had a short-lived raise before OPM issued its memo. That means the GS pay cap has risen from $155,500 to $157,100, the most commonly prevailing cap for the SES and other high-level pay systems has risen from $179,700 to $181,500, and the total compensation cap (including salary and various types of additional pay and awards) has increased from $230,700 to $233,000. Salaries for members of Congress were frozen for 2014 by a previous law. A separate OPM memo carried out other language in the budget measure extending the 1 percent raise to blue-collar employees.