The President signed into law H.R. 3082, prohibiting statutory pay adjustments for most Federal civilian employees. The President also directed that Heads of Agencies implement that pay freeze in a manner that ensures consistent treatment of executive branch civilian employees. To ensure the pay adjustments is applied in a fair and equitable manner across DoD, no discretionary pay adjustments will be made under authorities that are similar to those mentioned in the newly-enacted law. For more information read the DoD Memo: Implementing Pay Adjustments under DoD Authorities, 30DEC2010.
An OCHR Fact Sheet has been created to help explain how federal civilian pay adjustments are affected by the freeze on pay signed into law on December 22, 2010. The fact sheet describes which categories of employees and pay adjustments are covered/excluded under the pay freeze. For more information please read the OCHR Fact Sheet: Freeze on Pay Adjustments for Federal Civilian Employees, January 2011.
OPM has provided special rules for adjusting retained rates for certain employees in nonforeign areas (including Alaska and Hawaii) as part of the implementation of the Non-Foreign Area Retirement Equity Assurance Act of 2009. Employees in these areas received locality pay increases accompanied by corresponding cost-of-living allowance (COLA) reduction. However, retained rate employees do not receive a pay increase commensurate with the increase in the locality pay percentage. These special rules prevent retained rate employees from experiencing a reduction in gross pay during the transition period. For more information, read the OPM Memo: Retained Rate Adjustments in Nonforeign Areas, 27DEC2010.
Under Section 147 of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 as amended by section 1(a) of the Continuing Appropriations and Surface Transportation Extensions Act, 2011, no statutory pay adjustment will be made under section 5343(a) of title 5, United States Code, or similar authority. Section 710 provides that pay increases for certain prevailing rate employees in FY 2011 may not exceed 0 percent. For more information read the OPM Memo: Fiscal Year 2011 Prevailing Rate Pay Adjustments, 27DEC2010.