Pay Raise to Take Effect But Changes Lie Ahead

A pay raise averaging 2 percent for general schedule employees takes effect at the start of the first full pay period of the calendar year, which for most employees is January 11. The 2 percent raise is occurring by default because Congress failed to legislate a figure during last year’s budget process; the raise is divided as 1.5 percent across the board and the remainder parceled out as locality pay, producing raises ranging from 1.94 percent in the “rest of the U.S.” catchall locality for employees not in one of the metropolitan area locality pay zones to 2.46 percent in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area. The 2 percent raise likely will be overridden in late January by a vote on a catchall spending bill (HR-2673) that contains a 4.1 percent average raise, likely to be split as 2.7 percent across the board and 1.4 percent for locality pay. That raise, if approved, would be retroactive to th1. e start of the first full pay period of the year.