More than 2, hourly federal workers in Pennsylvania will get a pay increase later this year due to a new rule approved by the Office of Personnel Management. John Fetterman , D-Pa. On Tuesday, OPM finalized a rule that will raise the wages for hourly federal employees who have been paid differently than their salaried coworkers. Employees at federal facilities like Letterkenny Army Depot, Tobyhanna Army Depot and United States Penitentiary Canaan will receive wages based on the same local scales used to calculate the pay of their salaried co-workers beginning Oct.
For example, hourly workers might be paid at different regional rates as their salaried colleagues even though they work in the same building. The locality pay system was implemented in the s to account for the variations of wages and cost of living across the country, but congressional appropriations for hourly wages have not kept pace with the scales used to determine annual salaries.
Since around , advocates have discussed the possibility of making the hourly workers and salaried employees pay scales more similar. Fetterman, along with former U. Bob Casey , D-Pa. Fetterman sent a letter to the Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee in September advocating for it to address the pay disparity.
FRPAC voted in December to recommend the change, but it was not immediately implemented by the federal government. AFGE represents more than , federal workers across more than local unions. The union is describing the rule change as a win for their members.
George added that the change will improve morale and increase the ability of federal agencies to attract and retain skilled workers. Pennsylvania was listed along with Maine, California, Alabama and Maryland as the states with the most blue-collar federal workers that would see pay raises. OPM also listed seven counties nationwide with the most workers receiving a pay increase, which included Franklin and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania. John Cole is a journalist based in Philadelphia.
