D.C. GS Locality Pay

[Anonymous]

Just a general question, but how often, if ever, does OPM address the locality pay percentages? I noticed D.C. (24.22%) is well below a number of cities were cost of living is much lower than the D.C. area. For example, the locality pay in Houston is almost 29%.

I realize that this is likely because cost of living in the D.C. area has soared significantly in recent years. Does this/will this ever be address by OPM?

[Anonymous]

Hasn't happened in my 10 years of service. But yeah, my coworkers in Denver were making the same as me even though they bought houses in the 200s.

[Anonymous]

It's because we have WV and Baltimore lumped in with DC. I doubt they would split it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's because we have WV and Baltimore lumped in with DC. I doubt they would split it up.

Damn! They're getting a good deal in WV! It's probably one of the cheapest areas in the country to live in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's because we have WV and Baltimore lumped in with DC. I doubt they would split it up.

Actually, I don't think that's it. I found this article and even with Baltimore and WV in the mix, D.C. has one of the worst locality pay discrepancies in the county.

http://www.fedsmith.com/2015/07/07/2016-locality-pay-and-how-it-will-impact-your-paycheck/

[Anonymous]

They recently added a few more areas of the US to include higher locality pay than the "Rest of US" category. I noticed the discrepancy years ago and figured it's political and financially-driven. There are too many factors to increase DC's locality such as OCONUS incentives are based off DC and the # of workers in the area. Pretty sad in my opinion with the increase of real estate prices in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They recently added a few more areas of the US to include higher locality pay than the "Rest of US" category. I noticed the discrepancy years ago and figured it's political and financially-driven. There are too many factors to increase DC's locality such as OCONUS incentives are based off DC and the # of workers in the area. Pretty sad in my opinion with the increase of real estate prices in the area.

They are doing this now. Adding 13 and expanding the DC area. Hey at least we're getting 1.3%!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They recently added a few more areas of the US to include higher locality pay than the "Rest of US" category. I noticed the discrepancy years ago and figured it's political and financially-driven. There are too many factors to increase DC's locality such as OCONUS incentives are based off DC and the # of workers in the area. Pretty sad in my opinion with the increase of real estate prices in the area.

They are doing this now. Adding 13 and expanding the DC area. Hey at least we're getting 1.3%!

Don't spend it all in one place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They recently added a few more areas of the US to include higher locality pay than the "Rest of US" category. I noticed the discrepancy years ago and figured it's political and financially-driven. There are too many factors to increase DC's locality such as OCONUS incentives are based off DC and the # of workers in the area. Pretty sad in my opinion with the increase of real estate prices in the area.

They are doing this now. Adding 13 and expanding the DC area. Hey at least we're getting 1.3%!

Don't spend it all in one place.

They will raise health insurance premiums.

[Anonymous]

You can always sign this petition to make your voices heard on the lack of a federal pay raise:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/give-hard-working-federal-employees-meaningful-pay-raise-year

Alternatively, someone could start a petition to address the low locality pay for the DMV. Not saying that either of these will result in fixing the problems, but at least it shows we want something done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They recently added a few more areas of the US to include higher locality pay than the "Rest of US" category. I noticed the discrepancy years ago and figured it's political and financially-driven. There are too many factors to increase DC's locality such as OCONUS incentives are based off DC and the # of workers in the area. Pretty sad in my opinion with the increase of real estate prices in the area.

They are doing this now. Adding 13 and expanding the DC area. Hey at least we're getting 1.3%!

Don't spend it all in one place.

They will raise health insurance premiums.

And daycare costs.

[Anonymous]

We got a $25k bonus when we moved to DC to help deal with high housing costs. I always thought locality pay was "off" because it is based on average pay and not cost of living. So Houston's is high because a lot of jobs in Houston are very high pay, which skews the average. And Denver doesn't have a lot of low paying jobs dragging the average down.

[Anonymous]

But again, DC's pay differential is still much worse than either of those cities. This the Federal Salary Council's chart:

Boston 62.13% 24.80%
Denver 61.43% 22.52%
Houston 66.38% 28.71%
Huntsville 49.49% 16.02%
San Francisco 92.40% 35.15%
Washington 77.58%. 24.22%

[Anonymous]

Sorry, to be clear, the first is the actual salary differential and the second is tbe government locality pay.

[Anonymous]

So, looks like your wish came true:

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2015/11/bay-area-dc-feds-receive-largest-pay-raises-next-year/124056/