OPM projects potential locality pay rates

Congress and the Bush administration still haven't reached an agreement on what next year's pay raise should be for white-collar federal workers. President Bush wants a 3 percent raise; the House and Senate have moved in the direction of a 3.5 percent increase. Either way, the overall pay increase federal employees receive in 2008 will be depend partly on where they reside.

The Federal Salary Council earlier this month recommended that whatever Congress and the president decide, feds should receive an across-the-board pay increase of at least 2.5 percent. If that recommendation is followed, employees can expect to see an additional 0.5 percent to 1 percent allocated to locality pay.

Figures provided by the Office of Personnel Management to Government Executive show the raises federal employees in all locality pay areas could potentially expect to receive in 2008. Two scenarios are provided to account for the possibility of either a 3 percent or 3.5 percent overall raise.