Location, Location

On Tuesday, the Federal Salary Council decided for the second year in a row to include Barnstable County, Mass., in the Boston locality pay area.

The government established the locality pay system under the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act. Federal employees in Barnstable County, where Cape Cod is located, are paid at the "Rest of U.S." locality pay rate. That rate applies to all federal workers in the 48 contiguous United States not covered by higher rates in 31 metropolitan areas, including Boston, Atlanta and Chicago.

Barnstable County has 13 federal agencies, which employ approximately 850 employees. For the past few years, officials there have argued that their county is the only one on the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Delaware in which federal workers do not get special pay boosts each year based on the costs of local labor. But the council has resisted granting special locality rates to areas with fewer than 2,000 federal employees paid under the General Schedule.

Last year the council decided to grant Cape Cod federal employees their request for special locality pay, and recommended that the President's Pay Agent, a group that includes OPM Director Kay Coles James, OMB Director Joshua Bolten and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, advise the president to include the area in the Boston locality pay area. But that decision was overruled by the Pay Agent, who said there wasn't enough evidence to show that federal agencies in Barnstable County were experiencing serious staffing problems.

On Tuesday, Barnstable County got another shot at getting locality pay when the salary council decided to recommend the area again for inclusion in the Boston locality pay area. The council based its decision on new criteria developed in conjunction with a decision to base locality pay areas on new metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) adopted by the Office of Management and Budget in June. In the past, locality areas have been loosely based on MSAs and consolidated metropolitan statistical areas that OMB defines by population, population density and commuting information.

The pay agent is expected to forward its recommendation to the president in late November.

Injured Feds

On Monday, President Bush signed into law H.R. 978, a bill that will help employees in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) who suffer a disability on the job.

Under FERS, 1 percent of a federal employee's salary is set aside for retirement. The two bills aim to help employees who become disabled and are unable to make Social Security or Thrift Savings Plan contributions by increasing the amount set aside to 2 percent while they are receiving disability payments.

"This will keep the accrual of an employee's retirement benefits in line with what they would have been had the individual not been injured," said Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., who sponsored the bill. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., introduced a similar bill.

The two bills were introduced after legislators learned that Louise Kurtz, a civilian Army employee injured in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, was unable to contribute to Social Security or the Thrift Savings Plan while out of work and receiving disability payments.

"This new law is a tribute to Mrs. Kurtz and her strength and determination in overcoming the adversity that struck her and her family," Davis said.