Salary Council to Review Localities

The Federal Salary Council, a body that advises senior federal officials on the general schedule locality pay system, will hold one or more public hearings in the early fall to consider whether the boundaries of certain localities should be redrawn in light of recent revisions by the Office of Management and Budget in the standard metropolitan statistical areas that in general serve as the basis for the locality pay system. The council, consisting of agency, union and outside compensation experts, is expected to issue by late October any recommendations for changing boundaries as well as its recommendations for how to allot pay by locality in 2004. The group’s recommendations go to the President’s Pay Agent, which consists of the heads of OMB, the Labor Department and the Office of Personnel Management. The House Appropriations Committee recently considered, but did not adopt, language to delay any potential changes in boundary lines.