Re: This just goes to show you!!!

I think that you will find the military getting the same pay raise after Congress comes back to work.

Re: This just goes to show you!!!

I don't see your point. We on the civilian side haven't done anything but go to work everyday. We don't influence either our own or the military pay raises. This is a disgusting game played each year between the President and Congress. If our pay raise had been on the same authorization as the military, we would have been in the same boat. If the military had been on the same one as us, we both would have this over now. But there is no "we" to any of this.

I, one of the "we", am just as disgusted as you that the military pay raise was delayed by the politics but I am at a loss as to why I have caused this. Those of us that have been around for a long time have been through this game before on the civilian side. The military will get their raises; of that you can be sure.

Re: Pay Chart for Federal Firefighters

Check with the Union. I am sure the International Association of Fire Fighters can provide that information. In fact, it is on several IAFF Local's website.

Yes, not many within the Federal world recognize that we have federal fire fighters. Even less realize that you work the huge number hours you do each week. 72 hr work weeks are bad but when we can't find basic information available to 99% other Federal employees...

Re: IT Payscale

I am no pay expert, but after wondering the same thing and searching around, this is what another person in my office and I concluded. Since we got specialty pay in past years, we did not get locality pay (as I understand it). The locality pay raise for "rest of US" is 13.18 percent this year. If you look at the special pay rate table 999B for previous years, GS-12's got a 13.0 percent special pay increase.
This year, the locality pay rate for "rest of US" is slightly higher 13.18 percent than the 13.00 percent specialty pay. So we got the higher rate locality pay.
I found this memo from OPM after some searching: See para 6.

http://www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2007/08PAYCOMP.ASP

You are right tho, we are not getting any special pay now for IT, just the same pay as other GS-12s.

As stated, I am not a pay expert so if anyone finds out anything different, I am interested also.

Re: IT Payscale

Personally, I've never understood why IT has a special salary rate while so few others do. I realize that most people can go out and get higher paying IT jobs, but that can be said of a lot of professional skills.

Re: IT Payscale

I work in the Boston pay area, and its locality pay is greater than the IT pay, so we got locality pay instead.

It doesn't look like the IT special pay tables were adjusted yearly and were overtaken by locality pay.

Government pay in IT positions in the Boston area is pitifully low compared to the civilian sector. That being said, there are other thing that keep people working for the FED, besides pay.

Re: IT Payscale

This whole problem started a little overa year ago when "they" decided to change our "BASE PAY" as outlined in the special salary rate tables to the regular GS pay with our "IT Kicker" being tracked the same way as locality pay. We were assured that there would be no loss of money; simply a different way of accounting.

Well guess what, now that we no longer receive the "BASE PAY" as outlined in the Special Salary Rate tables, we only get the increase on the regular GS schedule. And since our "IT Kicker" isn't really locality pay, we didn't receive that raise either. Any way you look at it, the bean counters are screwing us over.

On an even more absurd note, why is it one or the other.

I mean if the cost of living goes up, don't those people who are working in IT positions need to buy the same loaf of bread or gallon of milk?

It doesn't make any sense at all. It would be better to have a smaller "IT Kicker" PLUS the area cost of living allowance.

Re: IT Payscale

The bottom line for me is, I got a 2.68 percent increase while the people sitting next to me (including IT people) got 3.5 percent. (Calculating 2.5 basic pay increase, plus the .18 percent increase on locality versus the 13 percent we got before). The only reason for the lesser raise is because I am a GS-12 IT - that does not seem right. I just wrote OPM asking where the rest of my 3.5 percent pay raise was. (Fortunately I am under the GS system for a few more months-NSPS sounds worse).

Re: 2008 Pay Raise calculator link

If you are still seeing the 2007 pay rates, you need to refresh your browser for the reasons we outlined in the article last week and in the newsletter announcement about deleting the 3% average pay raise (since the 3.5% is the figure that was finally approved). Your system has probably retained an old page in its cache and that needs to be deleted if it is not calculating the 2008 pay rates.

Re: 2008 Pay Raise calculator link

It's no wonder housing in D.C. costs so much.

Re: Average federal salary

The average federal salary figures for the Washington, DC area do not include elected officials.