Letter to the editor
I read Milt Zall's Jan. 8 Bureaucratus column and agree with his analysis ["Pay raise spells trouble"].
One additional potential problem that could occur is that if they use the same interpretation as for the engineers in special pay categories, these same employees (especially at the GS-12 level) will not receive any increase in pay.
For engineers, the special pay provision states that the engineer will get the larger of either the special pay or locality increase, but not both.
Other employees assume that engineers are getting an increase, but in reality, there is no change to their gross pay. Their base pay increases, but they only get part of the locality adjustment. This is true in most large areas that have a separate locality adjustment.
Douglas Magale
General engineer