Q: In Alaska we are transitioning to locality pay from COLA. The transition began in January 2010 and will be fully in effect in 2012 for high-3 calculations. Because of this move from COLA, we are in the process of gaining a substantial amount of high-3 earnings for our retirement calculations. How does OPM handle the average if one retires at the end of June 2012, just two and a half years into the transition period? I can see that one would use all of 2010 and then all of 2011, but that last 12-month period is the question. A…
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Q: I work in Alaska as an Army civilian police officer. Where I am stationed, we receive specialty pay. For example, I am a GS 08 about to move up to GS 09. My current GS 08 step 4 pay is $54,633. On top of this, we still get cost-of-living allowance here, which for me turns out to be $11,440.15. A normal GS-scale employee as an GS 08 step 4 receives $41,393. Does my specialty pay count toward my Federal Employees Retirement System annuity? In other words, is my retirement based on the $54,633, or is it based on $41,393?…
Q: When a person on Federal Employees Retirement System disability reaches age 62 and a recomputation is done, are the cost-of-living adjustments added to the “high-3” salary from the regular pay schedule or from the annuity COLA schedule? My high-3 was $47,116 when I became disabled in February 2004, and I turned 62 in June 2010. I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I was under the impression that COLA was determined by the GS schedule and locality pay. A: When you reach age 62, the time your spent on the disability annuity roll will be added to your actual…
Q: Please advise whether government employees who are retired will receive a cost-of-living adjustment for 2011, since Social Security recipients won’t get an increase for next year. A: Because cost-of-living increases for retirees track the increase in Social Security benefits, federal retirees won’t get a COLA increase in 2011.
Q: If I retire on Dec. 31 at the age of 56 with more than 20 years in law enforcement, would I immediately be eligible for any cost-of-living adjustment for retirees paid at the beginning of the new year, or would I have to wait another full year for the increase? A: No, you wouldn’t be eligible for any cost-of-living increase in 2011. You would receive your first COLA increase in your January 2012 annuity payment. The amount would be 11/12ths of that increase. To receive the full COLA, you would have to retire no later than Nov. 30, 2010.
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.
Q. I see that the approximate COLA for retirees this year might be 0.1 percent. My question is, does that include postal retirees? I know we all go through OPM now, but sometimes it looks like postal retirees fall into a different group. A. The cost-of-living adjustment for retirees in 2010 was zero. While it’s been estimated that it will be 0.01 percent next year, when it comes to COLAs, no distinction is ever made between postal and non-postal employees
Q. I will be covered by a Civil Service FERS/CSRS Component retirement & am currently considering an overseas assignment where a cost-of-living allowance (COLA)/post allowance (PA) will be paid. Since I lose my current stateside locality pay when overseas, will this COLA/PA be included in computations for my high-3 retirement calculation? A. No, it won’t be included when computing your high-3.
For employees, 2010 is a mixed year for benefits. For retirees, it’s pretty much a bust. General Schedule employees received a 2 percent pay increase, with 1.5 percent going to all employees and the remainder being distributed through locality pay. If you want to compare how you made out against employees in other areas, go to the Salaries and Wages page on the Office of Personnel Management Web site. The maximum taxable earnings for Social Security withholding stay at the 2009 level — $106,800. So, if you are a Federal Employees Retirement System or Civil Service Retirement System Offset employee,…
Q. Can anyone explain why retirees are not included in the 2 percent cost-of-living allowance for 2010? Is it because the President is pro union and retirees are not covered by the union? As far as I know, this is the first time retirees were excluded from annual COLAs. It would seem to me that retirees are more in need of the COLA than currently employed full-time employees. A: There are two pieces of law involved here. The salaries of employees are governed by the pay comparability act, which compares the salaries of federal jobs with those in the private…