Browsing: PAY

Q: I receive retention pay of 10 percent of my base salary. I have run across articles that indicate that retention pay can be used to calculate the high-3. Is that true? A: As a rule, recruiting and relocation bonuses and retention allowances are not considered part of the basic pay of an employee for any purpose, including calculation of retirement annuity. Since a high-3 is based solely on basic pay, the amount from which retirement deductions are taken, you can get a pretty good idea about how your pay is being treated by looking at your latest pay slip.…

Q: I am a FERS employee. I haven’t been able to find what fees are associated with taking an annuity with the TSP. The percentage amount of these fees will help determine whether to go with an annuity or take a fixed monthly payment schedule. A: There are no explicit fees. You pay the premium in exchange for a monthly payment.

Q: What were you thinking? No COLA for two years, now a tax increase, causing my check to be $38 less. I am barely surviving. Do something. This is no way to repay veterans, or their widows,  for their service. A: You’ve come to the wrong place to point the finger of blame. The fact that no cost-of-living adjustments are being made on retiree annuities is a product of the same law that routinely gave you COLAs in the past. When the economy tanked, the index on which they are computed fell below zero. Just be thankful that this same…

Q: I heard you could receive FERS retirement credit for the two-week annual training sessions of reserve duty. If so, what records are needed, and where can former reservists obtain them? A: You already received credit for that time. 5 U.S.C. 6323 (a) provides 15 days per fiscal year for active duty, active duty training and inactive duty training. You can’t get credit for it twice.

Whether you are an employee or a retiree, this year is a real bust when it comes to benefits. Employee pay scales are frozen at 2010 levels for two years under a presidential proposal that was approved by Congress. Frozen are cost-of-living adjustments to the General Schedule, Senior Executive Service, wage grade and other pay scales in the executive branch for 2011 and 2012. On the bright side, employees eligible for step increases will still receive them in those years. About 1.1 million GS employees — three-quarters of the GS population — will receive $2.5 billion in raises through step…

Q: Articles in Federal Times mentioned that CSRS employees will not receive the payroll tax deduction, but they have not mentioned CSRS Offset employees. As CSRS Offset employees pay into Social Security, will they receive the payroll tax deduction in 2011? A: Yes, CSRS Offset employees will receive the Social Security payroll tax deduction with no increase in the amount they contribute to CSRS.

Q: I am a retired Civil Service Retirement System annuitant with 32 years of Defense Department service. If I accept another civil service position (DoD or otherwise), what are the pay limitations? In my case, what is the pay cap for San Diego, under the 2011 pay scale? Would my pension be considered as part of a total compensation package (Level 1 cap), or part of pay only (level IV cap)?    Also, is consideration as a re-employed annuitant feasible? I understand pay-cap limitations are considerably less stringent, but the DoD guidelines are extrememly difficult for the hiring agency to…

Q: I just heard the news about the freezing of federal employees’ pay rates. Does this also mean that we will not receive within-grade increases that are due to us in the next two years?    A: Because a pay freeze is a proposal and not a fact (the Congress would have to pass legislation to make it happen), it’s far too early to say what would happen to within-grade increases.

If you are a retiree who was upset when you didn’t get an annual cost-of-living adjustment in 2010, I can imagine how you feel now that you’ve learned that you won’t get one in 2011, either. Neither will Social Security beneficiaries. Actually, I don’t have to imagine because I’m in the same boat. I’m a federal retiree, and I’m also receiving Social Security benefits. The only reason I’m not writing angry letters to my members of Congress is because I understand both the law and the process used to implement it. Let me share that information with you and see…

Q: How is an annual leave buyout calculated? Is it “accumulated hours x current hourly wage”? Is this considered unearned income? I have also heard they take 40 percent in taxes for this. A: Lump sum annual leave payments are calculated using the hourly rate of basic pay you would have received had you remained on the agency’s rolls. Therefore, if you were to retire before the annual pay adjustment becomes effective, any hours before that will be computed at the old rate and those after on the new rate. Any step increase that would have occurred after you retired…

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