Still Waiting on Final Details on Raise

The Office of Personnel Management has sent a notice to agencies reminding them that while an appropriations bill carrying an average 3.1 percent January general schedule raise has been signed into law, ” until the President issues an Executive order, we do not yet know how that amount will be allocated between an across-the-board GS pay increase and increases in locality payments among the locality pay areas.” OPM said it will provide additional guidance to agencies regarding the January 2006 pay adjustment as soon as the executive order is signed. Typically that happens at the end of December and the pay tables are released a day or two afterward. It’s expected that the raise will be divided as 2.1 percentage points across the board and the money for the other percentage point allotted as locality pay.