Washington, D.C. 20530

November 8, 2000

MEMORANDUM FOR DEPARTMENT COMPONENTS

SUBJECT:      Special Salary Rates for Information Technology Positions

Attached for your information are two memoranda announcing the Office of Personnel Management's approval of special salary rates for certain Information Technology positions and grades (Attachment A and Attachment B).

The new special salary rates will be effective January 14, 2001. They will cover all employees officially assigned to GS-5/7/9/11/12 (see Note below) positions in the following General Schedule (GS) series: GS-334 (computer specialist), GS-854 (computer engineer), and GS-1550 (computer scientist).

The pay increases provided by these schedules will range from 3 to 33 percent, and will vary by geographic "cluster" and grade level. We have attached OPM's list of the projected salary ranges for the covered grades in the six geographic clusters (Attachment 1 and Attachment 2). The actual salary schedules are not yet available. We have also attached OPM's Questions and Answers on this topic (Attachment 3).

If members of your staff have any questions about this matter, they may call John Cahill, Policy Group, of my staff on (202) 514-6778.

Attachments

cc: Bureau Personnel Officers
      Senior IRM Officials
      Adrian Curtis, JMD Budget Staff
      Melinda Morgan, JMD HRSAG

 Note:  For technical reasons, OPM also plans to establish special salary rates at the GS-13 level in locality pay areas, but this will not affect incumbents' pay since the locality pay rates will be higher.