The cap has caused increasing numbers of employees to suffer from what is called pay compression. Image: Anikin Denis/Shutterstock.com
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., has said she plans to introduce a bill to provide relief from the pay caps that currently apply to employees in the upper reaches of the GS system that prevents them from receiving full annual pay increases.
That cap, set at Level IV of the Executive Schedule, this year is $176,300. Increases in that cap reflect only the across-the-board component of a GS raise and not the locality pay component. That has caused increasing numbers of employees to suffer from what is called pay compression.
The cap this year limits pay for employees at GS-15 step 10 in 10 localities plus Hawaii; at steps 9-10 in four; at steps 8-10 in seven; at steps 7-10 in four plus Alaska; at steps 6-10 in two; and at steps 4-10 (plus GS-14, step 1) in one, the San Francisco-Oakland locality.
The impact could widen again in 2023, since the 4.6 percent raise under consideration almost certainly would be split into across the board and locality components, with the cap once again increasing only along with the former. Norton said her planned bill would instead allow employees “to receive the base and locality pay adjustments they would otherwise be entitled to.”
“This bill will allow many of the longest-serving federal public servants, District of Columbia residents among them, to receive the pay adjustments they are entitled to but for the pay cap,” Norton said in a statement. “This bill will help the federal government hire and retain the most qualified individuals. Pay adjustments are especially important during periods of high inflation.”
“While this bill would not solve all pay compression issues in the federal government, Norton believes it is an important step and is exploring ways to reduce pay compression in all federal pay systems,” the statement said.
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