Some Cities Could Be Dropped, Added

The salary council also recommended dropping three metropolitan areas and putting employees working in them back into the “rest of the U.S.” locality on grounds that the measured pay gaps between federal and private sector jobs in those cities have been falling behind the gaps in the “rest of the U.S.” locality. Those cities are Orlando, St. Louis and Kansas City, Kansas. The pay in those localities is only slightly above the rate in the “rest of the U.S.” No localities have been dropped since the mid-’90s. The group also recommended that Memphis, Phoenix, Austin, Buffalo, Raleigh, N.C. and Louisville, Ky. be studied to possibly become new localities.