Most DC-Baltimore area federal workers to get 3.52% raise

The order was needed to finalize the raise Trump signed into law Dec. 20 as part of a larger bill, providing a 2.6% across-the-board increase, plus an average 0.5 percentage points paid in varying amounts among four dozen city zones and a catchall “locality” for areas outside those zones.

The raise will be effective with the first full pay period of the new year, which for most federal employees will begin Jan. 5. It will be the largest increase for federal workers in a decade, a period that included a three-year freeze over 2011-2013 and raises in other years in the 1% to 2% range.

The increases by locality are based on an advisory council’s comparisons of federal and private-sector salary rates using Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Raises are based on where employees work, not where they live.

The Washington-Baltimore locality encompasses not only those cities and their close-in suburbs but also much of Maryland and northern Virginia and reaches into eastern West Virginia and south-central Pennsylvania.

The San Francisco and Seattle areas will receive the next-largest boost, 3.4% each, with the San Diego, Los Angeles and New York areas getting between 3.3% and 3.4% raises. The smallest raise, 2.85%, will be paid in the catchall locality, called the “rest of the U.S.”

The raises apply to employees under the General Schedule, the salary system covering most white-collar federal employees below the executive level. Raises for blue-collar employees are limited to the local white-collar amount.

Career employees in the Senior Executive Service and in nonexecutive positions at similar levels receive raises based on performance ratings. They are paid within a range that for most will top out at $197,300.

The order brings to an end a year of up and down prospects for raises for the 2.1 million executive branch employees outside the U.S. Postal Service. Trump initially recommended paying no increase for 2020 but then in late summer backed a 2.6% increase, to be paid across the board. Meanwhile the House had voted for the 3.1% average total amount.

The Senate never took a position, effectively supporting 2.6%, but both the Senate and the White House ultimately agreed to the 3.1% figure, split as the House had proposed, as part of a measure to fund federal agencies through the 2020 budget year.