Q. I’ve been offered a position with the Defense Intelligence Agency as a GG-13, step 6. I’m a GS-13, step 6, and have been for nearly a year. I accepted my position last year, going from my previous salary as a GS-13, step 4. Can I ask for a raise in the new position? Or, since I’ve been a step 6 for only around a year, am I ineligible? Also, with DIA, will my leave award of six hours per pay period apply? Should it? My new position with DIA will be outside the contiguous United States, so the allowances and leave days are different. And DIA is offering all applicable OCONUS allowances.
A. You have to have 104 weeks of acceptable performance to move from Step 6 to Step 7. However, you could receive a quality step increase if your most recent rating of record is Level 5, or, if covered by an appraisal program that does not use a Level 5 summary, you receive a rating of record at the highest summary level used by the program and demonstrate sustained performance of high quality significantly above the Fully Successful level.
