Pay Raises, New Benefits for ‘07

By Pete Castellano

During her Town Hall Meeting of November 8, FAA AdministratorMarion C. Blakey announced that FAA Core Compensation (“core comp”) employees would be receiving 100% of the Organizational Success Increase (OSI) based on last fiscal year’s performance, when the FAA hit 27 of 30 Flight Plan Targets.

Eligible Core Plan employees (i.e., those meeting the minimum service, performance, and conduct requirements), including employees in most bargaining units under the Core Plan, will receive an Organizational Success Increase (OSI) of 2.7 percent. The OSI funding pool consists of the amount of the general increase for General Schedule (GS) employees in other Federal agencies plus an additional 1 percent, which reflects a portion of the funds previously spent on within-grade increases. For this year, GS employees will receive a 1.7 percent general increase, which results in a total OSI pool of 2.7 percent (1.7 percent general increase plus 1 percent).

The OSI for this year will be 100 percent of the total pool, which results in 2.7 percent. Employees also receive an average locality pay increase of 0.5 percent. Employees who currently receive locality pay will also see an average increase in their locality pay percentage of .5 percent. In addition, approximately 65 percent of Core Plan employees who have been designated to receive a Superior Contribution Increase (SCI) will receive an additional increase of 0.6 percent for SCI-2, or 1.8 percent for SCI-1. The OSI and SCI adjustments and new locality pay percentages will all be effective January 7, 2007, and will first appear in employees’ paychecks issued on January 30, 2007. There will be a 1.7% increase in Core Pay Bands, which represents the variance to the market.

FAA continues to follow the Federal locality pay program, which will result in an average locality pay increase of 0.5 percent for all FAA employees currently receiving locality pay. Finally, there will be a 1.7% increase in Executive Pay Bands, which represents the same increase as with the Core Pay Bands. This is also the same increase as the Senior Executive Service.

In addition to health insurance, which traditionally has been a part of federal employee benefits, this year, federal employees may sign up for a new dental and vision benefits program, called FEDVIP, and flexible spending accounts. Flexible spending accounts allow employees to use pretax salary allotments for reimbursement of certain medical and dependent care expenses.