Bi-weekly Pay Cap
General Schedule (GS) employees and other covered employees may receive certain types of premium pay for a biweekly pay period only to the extent that the sum of basic pay and premium pay for the pay period does not exceed the greater of the biweekly rate payable for a GS-15, step 10 (including any applicable locality payment or special rate supplement), or the rate payable for level V of the Executive Schedule (5 CFR 550.105).
Annual Premium Pay Cap
For employees performing emergency work as determined by an agency head or by OPM the biweekly pay limitation does not apply. Instead, premium pay in combination with basic pay, locality pay, or special rate pay of pay may not exceed the maximum annual rate of a GS-15.
The Bi-Weekly and Annual Caps on Premium Pay can be found on the OPM website.
Increased Annual Premium Pay Limitation
The Secretary of Defense has been authorized to waive the annual premium pay cap. Eligible Department of Defense (DoD) employees are authorized an increase to the annual premium pay limitation under 5 U.S.C. 5547, not to exceed the annual rate of salary payable to the Vice President under 3 U.S.C. 104, if they perform work in response to an emergency declared by the President or in direct support of, or directly related to, a military operation, including a contingency operation, while assigned to an overseas area of responsibility of the Commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) or an overseas location that has been moved from the U.S. CENTCOM area of responsibility to the area of responsibility of the Commander of the Africa Command (OPM, Note 5).
The bi-weekly and annual premium pay cap limitation does not apply to overtime earned by Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)-nonexempt employees and wage grade employees.