Changing the locality salary table for each State or Region

Locality pay for GS Employees is set by OPM and the President’s Pay Agents with no flexibility on a state’s part. This group is 3-5 people the President appoints to consider recommendation from the DOL, BLS, OPM, OMB and others based on their NCS/OES Model. They won’t listen to anyone in regards to changes to this Salary Table. The biggest issue is the model does not include housing costs as part of determining whether we need to be moved to our own locality area. The issue we run into in Utah is housing costs are too high for the pay received in Utah as GS employees. The Census data included in the attachment is compared to other areas that have their own locality tables. It is all based on rankings of states and their housing costs. Utah is ranked #10. Of the states ranked #7-14, most have their own locality table. Due to this inability to have our own locality rate, Utah is unable to attract qualified applicants for most positions being hired. In addition, it is extremely difficult to retain qualified and trained GS employees because they cannot continue to make ends meet with the salary they are paid. This takes an overall toll on Utah National Guard readiness as many of these positions are at the directorate and support elements. This makes it difficult to continue to support the combat ready units and keep life support and pay actions continuing. Utah is requesting to be moved out of the 16.2% locality adjustment “Rest of US” and be placed in our own with an adjustment of 32-38% to be comparable to states receiving this based on pay and housing costs.

Recommending to support an Initiative to support changing locality salary table for each state.