Q. Is the average high-3 based on my gross pay including shift differential? The Office of Personnel Management site says yes. However, my employer is taking deductions for pension contributions only on my basic pay. I would get less by this method. I work for Treasury. A. Night shift differentials are considered to be a part of basic pay if you are a prevailing rate (wage) employee. If you are a GS employee, they aren’t.
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Q. Is shift differential and Sunday premium used to compute your annuity if you worked your entire career that way? A. The rules differ for GS and Wage employees. To see what’s included in basic pay for retirement purposes, go to www.opm.gov/retire/pubs/handbook/C032.pdf and scroll down to Section 30A1-1-2.
Q. I am on involuntary recall as a reservist to active duty. I am also a federal employee who bought back my four years of active-duty time. Upon my return to my federal position, would I be allowed to sell back the time I was mobilized to active duty if I was getting differential of pay from my federal agency? I am also retiring from the reserve and would like to know if I could retire from my federal position with 15 years and not meet the age requirement. A. Yes, you can make a deposit to get credit for…
Q. I am active Army with a terminal leave date of July 1. I am considering a GS-13 position with a start date of July 1 (I plan to work during terminal leave), but I have to negotiate a step increase. However, I’m being told I can’t use my leave and earnings statement as justification for my current pay. Is that the case? If so, why? A. Your leave and earnings statement is simply a one-month snapshot. In addition, it may be difficult for the folks you are negotiating with to separate the income that represents your job-based earnings from…
Q. I deployed to Afghanistan as a DoD civilian in 2011. Do the foreign post and danger pay differentials, as well as overtime night and Sunday pay amounts, count toward my high-3 for calculating my annuity if I choose to retire in 2012? I am under FERS, age 60 with 10 years of service. A. None of them are included when calculating a high-3.
Q. I am a civilian employee who accepted a permanent Defense Department GS-07 Target 09 position overseas. The salary in the letter of offer/acceptance that I signed was $66,941 per year, which is the salary I was receiving from my former command, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The $66,941-per-year salary included the cost-of-living adjustment. Because the position is an emergency essential (EE), it took me several months to complete all the requirements. Three days after my household goods were picked up and two days before my original flight schedule, I received an email from the human resources specialist notifying me the change of my pay to $52,642 per year. Nothing…
Q: I’m curious about the rationale behind shift differentials counting toward a WG employee’s basic pay and high-3, but it doesn’t count for GS employees. Why is this? Is this an OPM regulation? Is there a way I can learn more about what I see as an inequity to GS employees because shift differential doesn’t count toward their high-3? A: Shift differentials for wage-system employees are provided for in law. Such a provision isn’t needed for general-schedule employees because these and other factors are included when determining their job grades.