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By: FEDweek StaffThe Federal Salary Council, which oversees the GS locality pay system, has set a November 5 date for the type of meeting that produces the data on which specific raises by locality later are set for the upcoming year—if there is to be a locality component to the raise.
That last point has yet to be decided for 2020, with the most likely outcome either a 2.6 percent raise across the board with no locality component or an across the board raise of that size plus locality pay averaging another 0.5 percent.
While the council generally holds one annual meeting and the calculations are routine—the numbers are based on data reported by the Labor Department comparing federal versus non-federal salaries by locality for a variety of occupations and the council members have no authority to change them—last year was an exception. It held two formal meetings since none had been held in 2017 and at both there was a sharp split between the council members from federal employee unions and those appointed by the White House.
Those members raised several options for changing the methods used to determine the “pay gap”—which the data annually show is above 30 percent in favor of the private sector on average, much higher in some city areas—ranging from technical changes to taking a “total compensation” approach that includes the value of benefits, not just salaries. They were voted down by the more numerous union members, who argued that such a comparison would be a first step toward cutting the value of federal employee benefits—which both factions assume such a comparison would conclude are superior.
The council also annually considers requests from certain areas to have their own locality-based rate or to add certain areas to existing localities, actions that in both cases would yield raises as employees working in them are moved out of the lowest-paid locality, the “rest of the U.S.” outside one of the designated city areas. Such requests mostly are denied on grounds that the areas do not meet the criteria for creating or expanding localities. However, steps have been taken toward carving out a new locality in the Des Moines, Iowa area, an action that could be finalized in time for the January 2020 raise if it is approved by the council and then by a higher-level body.
