Q. Can you tell me how Executive Level IV pay, which limits the maximum pay of GS scale employees, is calculated? What is the formula? In searching, I can find the pay rate but not the rules. In other words, will GS-15 Step 9s and Step 10s who have hit that ceiling ever see that ceiling rise?
Browsing: Step increases
Q. I have been on FERS disability retirement from the Postal Service since November 1996. I turned 62 in October and received a letter from the Office of Personnel Management notifying me that my annuity was recalculated and what my new monthly annuity would be. My creditable service calculation is correct, but the high-3 doesn’t look right. FERS Publication RI 98-1 states, “The total service used in the computation is increased by the amount of time you were on the disability annuity roll and your average salary is increased by the FERS cost-of-living increase during the time you were on…
Q. In the last buyout the clerks had for $15,000, one of our clerks took that and said that she got paid for the holidays after her retirement date if her annual leave would have taken her through those dates. Back then, the retirement date was the end of November and she got paid for Christmas, New Year’s and Martin Luther King Day. Does this benefit apply all the time when a person retires, or is it just when a buyout is offered? A. Yes. Unused annual leave is projected forward as if you were still on the job and…
Q. Have step increases been frozen? A. No.
Q. I am a new employee and have both service computation date (April 29, 2011) and date of hire (May 7, 2012). When calculating step increases (going from 7 to 8, for example) or vacation accrual (going from four to six hours per pay period) or similar, which date do I use for the calculations? For example, it’s three years between a step 7 and 8, so for me, will that happen April 29, 2014, or May 7, 2015? I don’t know the standard time period before I go from four to six hours’ sick accrual, but is that based…
Leave without pay (LWOP) must be granted in some instances and is a matter of supervisory discretion in others. Employees are entitled to LWOP in the following situations: • Under the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides covered employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for certain family and medical needs. • Under the 1994 Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which requires LWOP for a period of military service. • Under Executive Order 5396, from July 17, 1930, which requires LWOP for disabled veterans for necessary medical treatment. A supervisor might…
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…
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: I’m a WG-9, Step 3. We just recently received the 2010 cost-of-living adjustment. However, it was not retroactive to January 2010 like the GS COLA adjustments were. Will this automatically be retroactive, or is this COLA effective the date the president signed the order? A: Wage system and GS employees don’t receive cost-of-living adjustments. They receive pay increases. While the increases for GS employees are usually effective on the first pay period beginning on or after Jan. 1, wage system increases are based on wage surveys conducted at different times of the year and vary by locality.