Online petitions have become a popular way for federal employees to urge the White House to take action on things they would like to see done as well as to get backing from the general public for the causes put forth in the petitions. One of the popular ones of late is pushing for an extra day off at Christmas.
Now there’s another petition circulating that is asking the White House to implement the new locality pay areas that were recommended by the Federal Salary Council.
The Council recommended 12 new federal locality pay areas for addition in 2014. These new areas so far have not been implemented, drawing ire from federal employees and unions who were hoping to see them put in place.
As we noted in a recent article, “The President’s Pay Agent has to act on the recommendations of the Federal Salary Council in order for the new locality pay areas to become effective.” The same article also pointed out that the current political climate combined with an upcoming election are likely contributing to a lack of movement on the new localities.
Because of the apparent stalemate on implementing the new localities, one person decided to petition the White House to move the issue forward. The petition reads:
In 2012 the Federal Salary Council recommended 12 new locality pay areas to be included for the Federal Employees and this was agreed by the Pay Agent committee . We need this active for 2015.
“The Council recommended 12 new locality pay areas be established for 2014. While the Pay Agent tentatively agreed, work was not completed on the regulations needed to establish the areas, presumably due to the President’s alternative pay plan for 2014 which holds locality pay percentages at 2013 levels. Since work has not been completed on these 12 areas, we request the Pay Agent publish the required proposed and final regulations as soon as possible to establish the 12 new locality pay areas, as the Pay Agent agreed to this recommendation in its report for 2014.”
So far, this petition has not been as popular as the one pushing for the extra day off at Christmas, to put it mildly. As of the time of this writing, it has a very long way to go to get to the required 100,000 signatures to trigger a response from the White House. It currently stands at 37 signatures which suggests a lack of general public support for this particular issue.
The new locality pay areas that have been recommended are:
- Albany-Schenectady-Amsterdam, NY Combined Statistical Area;
- Albuquerque, NM Metropolitan Statistical Area;
- Austin-Round Rock-Marble Falls, TX Combined Statistical Area;
- Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury, NC-SC Combined Statistical Area;
- Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area;
- Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area;
- Harrisburg-Carlisle-Lebanon, PA Combined Statistical Area;
- Laredo, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area;
- Las Vegas-Paradise-Pahrump, NV Combined Statistical Area;
- Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area;
- St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL Combined Statistical Area; and
- Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area
