The Office of Personnel Management started its yearly assessment of special pay grades for federal employees this week, calling for agency reviews in an Aug. 4 memo.

The review looks at locality and other specific pay grades that are adjusted to higher levels for federal jobs with a history of recruitment and retention difficulties, such as Customs and Border Protection guards in the Bakken Oil Field in Montana and North Dakota.

Related: Read the memo

In the Aug. 4 memo, Acting OPM Director Beth Cobert said that agencies need to submit their special pay grade information if they are requesting either pay adjustments higher than the general schedule base rate taking effect in January 2017 or plan to reduce or eliminate a special rate schedule.

"The President's budget for fiscal year 2017 proposes a total pay increase costing 1.6 percent of basic payroll," Cobert said in the memo. "In other words, any across-the-board general increase in GS base rates combined with any locality pay increases (which could vary by locality pay area) would be limited to a 1.6 percent overall increase in total basic payroll."

President Obama has until Aug. 31 to make any changes to the federal pay raise for 2017, which comes after a 0.3 locality pay bump in 2016.

Federal employee unions blasted the 2017 raise when it was announced in February and backed legislation from Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., that called for a 5.3 percent bump, including 1.4 percent locality pay adjustment. The bill has, so far, not moved out of committee.

Agencies reporting information to OPM's review have until Oct. 14 to submit their special pay grade changes.

For more information, contact OPM's Special Rates Team, by telephone at (202) 606-2838 or email at pay-leave-policy@opm.gov.

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