Pay Caps Would Increase, Too

By: fedweek

A separate mechanism is at work for federal judges, members of Congress and top executive officials, whose executive schedule rates in turn set the pay caps that apply in the SES and other high-level career positions. Under the law, those raises are granted automatically unless Congress acts to block them. The House rejected a bid to stop the raises during its consideration of the general government spending bill, likely settling the issue for this budget cycle. Under the law applying to those raises, a raise of 2.7 percent is indicated, but a provision of that law caps the top-level raise at no more than the across-the-board GS component, which could be 2.5 percent. For the group with the largest number of employees potentially affected by pay caps, the SES, raises are not automatic but rather are linked to performance ratings. Thus, for them, an increase in executive level rates does not necessarily mean the same, or any, raise. GS employees at the top levels of grade 15 in several localities also are affected by the pay cap, as are employees in senior level and certain other pay schedules, and they would get a raise up to the new cap, however.