Proposed federal pay adjustment could boost wages for thousands of blue-collar feds | usagoldmines.com

Shut to fifteen,000 blue-collar federal staff working in commerce, craft and handbook labor jobs are prone to see their federal pay charges enhance by as a lot as 12%, as soon as a brand new proposed rule from the Workplace of Personnel Administration turns into finalized.

The proposed regulations, which OPM launched on Monday, intention to enhance total pay parity for roughly 168,000 blue-collar federal employees who’re paid hourly by way of the Federal Wage System (FWS). In follow, OPM’s proposal would align the map of FWS wage areas extra intently with the Common Schedule’s locality pay map.

“This could result in larger fairness throughout federal pay methods, with FWS employees’ pay extra aligned with GS employees who work in the identical geographic space,” OPM wrote in a press launch Monday.

Because of the proposed re-mapping, round 15,000 blue-collar federal staff would start receiving greater pay charges as soon as OPM’s laws turn into last — so long as there are not any main adjustments to how the proposed laws are presently written.

“For too lengthy, employees employed underneath the Federal Wage System have been paid much less cash than their counterparts employed underneath a distinct pay system to work in the identical space,” President Joe Biden mentioned Monday in regards to the new laws. “My administration is working to alter that.”

Below the proposed laws, one other 2,000 or so staff can be coated by OPM’s rules for “pay retention,” which might keep federal pay charges for feds who would in any other case see a pay lower.

The American Federation of Authorities Workers, a long-time advocate of updating the FWS map, expressed assist for the brand new proposed laws from OPM.

“In far too many places, staff working aspect by aspect in the very same constructing are, for functions of pay, handled as if they’re somewhere else,” AFGE Nationwide President Everett Kelley mentioned in a press release Monday. “This regulation, as soon as finalized, will right these inconsistencies and guarantee all staff are handled equally no matter which pay system they fall underneath.”

Who would the adjustments affect?

The laws affect solely appropriated fund staff, whereas non-appropriated fund employees will stay unaffected. As soon as finalized, the proposed adjustments will primarily affect federal pay charges for workers working for the Division of Protection, the Division of Veterans Affairs and the Bureau of Prisons.

Geographically, primarily based on the proposal, OPM’s laws would give federal pay will increase primarily to FWS staff working in Alabama, California, Maine, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Particularly, the proposed laws would most prominently affect federal staff working at three main navy installations: Tobyhanna, Letterkenny and Anniston Military Depots.

The challenges resulting in the persistent federal pay disparities are two-fold. In some instances, there are variations between blue-collar FWS staff and white-collar GS staff. In different instances, there are pay disparities amongst FWS staff working throughout the similar wage space, OPM defined.

The disparities stem from complicated variations between the 2 maps which have grown over time. Whereas the GS map has 58 complete locality pay areas, the FWS has 248 wage areas. Sure GS locality pay area include as many as six completely different FWS wage areas on the present maps. However different areas might have a single FWS wage space that stretches throughout a number of GS locality areas.

Many blue-collar staff have been pushing for years for adjustments to the FWS map, citing long-standing federal pay disparities between the 2 methods. At Tobyhanna Military Depot, for instance, the creation of a brand new GS pay space in 2005 led to a right away 12% locality-based pay increase for employees on the GS system. Though staff on each federal pay methods labored “in shut proximity,” blue-collar staff on the FWS didn’t obtain a increase.

“This led to a deep sense of unfairness on the a part of FWS staff at Tobyhanna, which continues to at the present time,” OPM wrote.

OPM mentioned the brand new laws, nevertheless, “would handle a lot of the variations in pay amongst FWS staff throughout the similar wage space and between FWS staff and GS staff working on the similar location.”

Historical past of the Federal Wage System

When the Federal Wage System was first established, the intention was to align the pay charges for blue-collar federal employees with the “prevailing” pay charges for personal sector employees with comparable jobs in the identical geographic space.

However over time, the FWS has deviated considerably from its authentic intent. Since 1979, annual appropriations payments have maintained a pay cap on blue-collar annual raises. The cap was meant to maintain FWS raises typically according to these for GS staff. However on account of almost 50 years of the annual caps, wages for blue-collar feds in 75% of FWS localities no longer align with native pay charges for comparable jobs.

The Federal Prevailing Fee Advisory Committee (FPRAC) has been contemplating completely different FWS reforms for a minimum of 15 years. OPM’s new proposed laws stem from a more moderen 2022 request from Congress for OPM take into account methods to align the locality pay maps for FWS and GS staff.

Some FPRAC members, nevertheless, have additionally raised concerns about potential problems of implementing FWS map adjustments. As an example, just a few committee members have mentioned companies might discover it difficult to work inside their present budgets to implement the pay changes, relatively than receiving further funding.

OPM reviewed the proposal that FPRAC initially approved in December 2023. In July 2024, OPM then despatched its plans over to the Workplace of Data and Regulatory Affairs, an arm of the Workplace of Administration and Finances, to begin the rulemaking process. The proposed rule will formally publish to the Federal Register on Friday. After that, the laws will stay open to feedback from the general public for the following 60 days.

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