By: fedweekAccording to projections from OPM, a 3 percent January raise with a 0.5 percentage point locality carve-out would produce increases ranging from 2.75 percent in the “rest of the U.S.” locality (areas in the contiguous 48 states not in one of the metropolitan area locality zones) to 3.49 percent in the Washington-Baltimore area. A raise of 3.5 percent with one percentage point of that for locality pay would produce increases ranging from 2.99 in RUS to 4.49 percent in Washington-Baltimore. For many years, the San Francisco area has received the largest locality increases, reflecting the measured pay gaps between federal and private sector jobs, but recent changes in the methodology used moved Washington-Baltimore—which had been in the middle of the pack–to the top of the list. San Francisco would receive the second-largest increases, under those projections—3.37 or 4.23 percent, for a 3 or 3.5 percent raise, respectively—followed by New York, 3.23 or 3.97, San Diego, 3.21 or 3.91, Phoenix, 3.19 or 3.88, and Boston, 3.15 or 3.8.
