FAA Announces Pay Raises

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The Defense Department's new National Security Personnel System, which also features pay bands, on Monday announced a 2.5 percent increase in maximum salaries.

Last week, President Bush issued an executive order that provides an average 3.5 percent pay raise to most federal employees -- a 2.5 percent across-the-board raise and a geographic-based adjustment that varies by locality.

For the Washington-Baltimore region, the raise and locality supplement resulted in a 4.49 percent raise. The administration's salary formula gives higher locality pay to certain metropolitan areas so they can keep pace with private-sector increases or catch up to local market rates.

About 5,000 FAA employees who have not converted to the core compensation system will receive a 2.5 percent raise and a locality adjustment. FAA executives will be eligible for an increase in base pay of 2.5 percent, the same raise being given to other executives in the government, Sturgell wrote.

Details of the pay changes will be posted within the week on the agency's Web site, he said.

"All in all, it's been a challenging but productive year for the agency," Sturgell said in his message to employees. He praised employees for doing "whatever was necessary to keep the [air traffic] system safe -- and after all other factors are taken into account, that's the one that matters the most."

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.

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