Some Additions and Deletions on the Way

Other recommendations from the Pay Agent include dropping in 2005 Kansas City, Orlando and St. Louis as separate localities and folding them back into the catchall “rest of the U.S.” locality. The reason given is that salary surveys in those areas in recent years have shown the pay gaps to be below the gap in the “RUS” locality; the raises in those three localities have been pulled up to the raise paid in the “RUS” locality. Meanwhile, the report recommends that certain other areas be studied to become separate localities “if resources become available”-the Phoenix, Memphis, Austin, Louisville, Buffalo and Raleigh-Durham areas. Also, the Pay Agent-the heads of the Labor Department, Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget-endorsed continuing certain changes in the way pay gaps are measured that are having the effect of slightly reducing the indicated gap between federal and non-federal pay.