New 2024 Locality Pay Areas Finalized Affecting 33,000 Federal Employees

UPDATE (12/22/2023): 2024 Federal Pay Raise Finalized in Executive Order – 2024 GS Pay Tables now available.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has finalized four new locality pay areas for 2024 adding approximately 33,000 federal employees to the locality pay system.

OPM’s final rule was published in the federal register last week listing the following locality pay areas:

Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA
Reno-Fernley, NV
Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY
Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d’Alene, WA-ID

According to OPM, locality pay areas consist of:

(1) a main metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and forming the basic locality pay area and, where criteria recommended by the Federal Salary Council and approved by the President’s Pay Agent are met,

(2) areas of application. Areas of application are locations that are adjacent to the basic locality pay area and meet approved criteria for inclusion in the locality pay area.

In June, OPM published a proposed rule on behalf of the Pay Agent. After a 30-day comment period, the Pay Agent reviewed comments and decided to implement the locality pay area definitions.

Locality pay rates for these four areas will be set by the president. The regulations are effective on December 18, 2023 and are applicable for pay purposes on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2024.

In September, the White House formalized its plan to give federal employees an across-the-board base 2024 pay raise of 4.7 percent with locality pay increases averaging 0.5 percent. The resulting overall average increase will be 5.2 percent for civilian federal employees.

The final 2024 federal pay raise tables  — including applicable locality pay — are usually released by the Office of Personnel Management in December.

To read the final rules on the federal register, go here.