OPM’s Series of Memos Concerning Federal Employee’s Pay, Occupational Series
The President signed an Executive Order (EO) implementing the pay adjustments for federal employees in January 2022. As previously reported by FEDmanager, the EO authorizes an increase in statutory pay systems and locality pay systems of 2.2 percent across-the-board and 0.5 percent of basic payroll, representing an overall average pay increase of 2.7 percent.
Senior Political Pay Freeze
In a memorandum, OPM announced that the pay adjustment guidance does not apply to senior political officials who have been subject to a pay freeze through February 18, 2022; Congress will decide whether the pay freeze continues after that date.
Members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) whose pay rate was below the minimum rate of the new SES rate range were required to receive a pay increase to bring their rate at least to the new minimum rate by January 2, 2022. Moving forward, an SES member cannot receive a rate below that threshold. Senior level (SL) and scientific and professional (ST) basic pay increased by 2.2 percent, which equals the General Schedule (GS) base increase.
The EO also reflects an increase in the base pay for administrative law judges (ALJs) by 2.2 percent, rounded up to the nearest $100.
Prevailing Rate Wage Employees
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, contained provisions affecting the determination of pay adjustments for certain prevailing rate (wage) employees. According to OPM, the FY 2022 prevailing rate applies to wage employees covered by 5 U.S.C. 5342(a)(2) or 5348 and is limited to a pay increase of 2.9 percent. Certain prevailing rate employees may not receive pay adjustments that are less than those received by GS employees covered by 5 U.S.C. 5344 or 5348 where they work in January 2022. These changes do not apply to wage employees who negotiate their pay.
Agencies should determine the maximum rates for affected prevailing rate employees for FY 2022 by determining the pay limitation provisions and the minimum pay increase applicable, and then applying the higher of those rates to affected prevailing rate wage schedules.
Whenever the President or Congress adjusts the GS pay, OPM conducts a review of special rates annually to determine the disposition of the special rate schedules. OPM determined that the January 2022 adjustment for existing special rates is also 2.2 percent.
Federal Data Scientist Occupational Series
With the Census Bureau, Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), OPM has released a new occupational series for data scientists in government. With the new series, agencies will be able to identify prospective employees with the right skills, and the series will help build out a federal community of practice around data modernization, which gained momentum in recent years with the creation of the Chief Data Officers Council (CDOC).
Despite meeting early goals under the 10-year Federal Data Strategy, CDOs have repeatedly sought to increase staffing and raise data literacy levels among federal workers. In a recent survey of federal CDOs conducted by the Data Foundation and Grant Thornton, more than half said their office has fewer than 10 full-time employees. Half of respondents also said they hire contractors to help with data operations and data visualization.
