OPM set to finalize rules standardizing General Schedule, blue collar locality pay maps
The final rule implementing the long-requested adjustment to the Federal Wage System’s map of wage areas won’t be published until after President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
The Office of Personnel Management appears set to finalize new regulations that will standardize the maps relied upon to determine the locality pay rates for white- and blue-collar federal workers across the U.S.
Most federal employees are paid under either the General Schedule or the blue-collar focused Federal Wage System. Feds on the General Schedule are granted locality pay based upon the gap between federal basic pay and private sector salaries in their region, while those in the Federal Wage System are paid based on a government formula measuring the “prevailing wage” for similar private sector work in their wage area.
But while the General Schedule’s map of locality pay areas is reevaluated on a near annual basis to account shifting labor markets across the country, the Federal Wage System’s map of wage areas remains largely based on a map of domestic military installations after World War II, with changes only coming after a round of military base closures or reorganizations.
As a result, at some federal facilities blue-collar workers encounter pay inequity compared both with their General Schedule counterparts, and in some cases, their Federal Wage System coworkers. But after years of advocacy by federal employee groups, Congress in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act expressed openness to standardizing the pay systems’ maps and last October, OPM proposed new regulations to finally do so.
“Investing in America means investing in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind,” said President Biden in a statement last fall. “For too long, workers hired under the Federal Wage System were paid less money than their counterparts hired under a different pay system to work in the same area. My administration is working to change that.”
In a final rule uploaded for public inspection Monday but not slated for publication in the Federal Register until Jan. 21, OPM finalized the change, noting that during the two-month comment window for the proposal, it received only one comment opposed to the change out nearly 600 submissions.
“OPM determined that the changes to the regulatory criteria used to define and maintain FWS wage areas will address the lack of equity that arises when FWS workers within a given GS locality pay area are paid from two, three or more different wage schedules, while the GS employees who work alongside them are all paid from the same salary schedule,” the agency wrote. “Implementation . . . will resolve equitably several of the thorniest issues on the [Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee’s] agenda related to specific geographic areas, such as the Tobyhanna Army Depot [in Pennsylvania] and other longstanding areas of interest.”
OPM said that the changes will impact around 17,000 Federal Wage System employees nationwide. In a previous filing, the agency said around 15,000 employees will see their pay increase, and that the 2,000 employees who will be moving into a lower wage schedule will be able to maintain their current wages under federal pay retention rules.
OPM did respond to questions regarding whether it has briefed transition officials for President-elect Trump on the rule change, which is set for publication after Trump’s inauguration and will not take effect until October 1.