The pay distribution for the first pay period of the year also should reflect FEHB/PSHB and FEDVIP premiums for the 2025 plan year. Image: FlowFocusPhoto/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe general schedule pay raise paid as of the first full pay period of the year—January 12-25 for most—should be reflected in pay distributions covering that period, which in most cases employees should be receiving this week or early next week.
While the raise averaged 2 percent, GS employees should remember that it varied by locality from 2.35 percent in the San Francisco area to 1.88 percent in the Cleveland area; it was 1.91 percent in the “rest of the U.S.” locality for areas outside the city areas with their own rates, which has the most employees.
Blue-collar employees receive their raise at differing times of a fiscal year, including some getting raises retroactive to last October; they generally receive the same percentage as GS employees locally but there is a complex capping mechanism in place.
More employees likely will be affected by a pay cap that is rising from $191,900 to $195,200. That limit, which is increased only by the across the board portion of a raise, applies to those in the upper steps of GS-15 three dozen of the localities, as well as the upper steps of GS-14 in the San Francisco locality, the highest-paid.
Career senior executives and those under other high-level pay systems who are paid within a range do not get raises automatically but as a practical matter many agencies pay performance-based raises to them at the start of the year. In most cases the pay cap under those systems will be $225,700. Pay remains frozen for political appointees, including political SES members.
The pay distribution for the first pay period of the year also should reflect FEHB/PSHB and FEDVIP premiums for the 2025 plan year. It further should reflect elections made for health care accounts, dependent care accounts or both under the flexible spending account program, and any increases in FEGLI premium levels linked to increased coverage levels when salaries increase.
Also increasing automatically with a raise are TSP investments of those who invest on a percentage of salary basis; agency contributions under FERS likewise rise. For those who invest on a dollar amount basis, personal investments won’t rise unless they elect to increase that amount; FERS matching contributions won’t rise unless they do so, although the automatic 1 percent of salary agency contribution rises regardless.
For retirees, the COLA increase—2.5 percent under CSRS, 2 percent under FERS for those eligible—should already have been received with the January payout. That payout should also have reflected FEHB/PSHB and FEDVIP premiums for the 2025 plan year.
This time of year you’ll also be receiving your W2, and possibly 1099-R. But what do all those boxes actually mean? See,
What’s in the Box? Decoding a Federal Employee’s W2
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OPM Plan on Employee Ratings Asking for Abuse, Says Senior House Democrat
OK, FERS and TSP, but What About Social Security Retirement Income?
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See also,
Calculating Service Credit for Sick Leave At Retirement
FERS Supplement vs The 10% Pension Bonus
How Your FERS, Social Security and TSP Payments Get Taxed
