Good news yesterday from the House of Representatives. It seems H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 passed! This piece of legislations has a lot going for it, but the part I’m most excited for is the elimination of pay disparity among foreign service officers serving overseas.
What is pay disparity?
Federal employees serving in Washington DC get “comparability pay.” This is a bit more than 20% that is supposed to bring federal pay to within five percent of private sector pay. Because of the way the law was written, however, Foreign Service officers serving overseas don’t qualify. That means, that even if you’re serving in a 20% pay differential country like Bosnia or Burkina Faso you’ll be taking a pay cut. Indeed, diplomats working at 25% the fabled “outer Mongolia” are only getting slightly more to tempt them to go to a place known for being cold, desolate, unimportant, and generally terrible (no offense to the Mongolian people, but that’s clearly the reputation). I know, you’re thinking, but you get housing, right? Well, we do, but 1. spouses have a hard time working overseas and 2. all those other folks assigned to embassies other than diplomats (various law enforcement, etc.) do get the comparability pay. AFSA has an FAQ you can check out if you’re interested.
The phase in
If the bill passes the senate, it will be phased in over three years, so there won’t be a huge immediate increase:
The locality-based comparability payment payable to a member of the Service under this section shall–
`(1) beginning on the first day of the first pay period that is 90 days after the date of the enactment of this subsection, be equal to 33.33 percent of the payment which would otherwise apply under subsection (a);
`(2) beginning on the first day of the first pay period in April 2010, be equal to 66.67 percent of the payment which would otherwise apply under subsection (a); and
`(3) beginning on the first day of the first pay period in fiscal year 2011 and each subsequent fiscal year, be equal to the payment determined under subsection (a).
Just needs to pass the Senate
So, we’re halfway there, right? I’m a little concerned that AFSA (the diplomats’ union) hasn’t been trumpeting this more, pay disparity has been a key issue for them, and if it looked good in the senate, I’d expect to hear more from them. Also, there has been some conservative opposition, for fiscal and moral reasons. Anyway, keep you fingers crossed!
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I actually really liked Mongolia, but I was there before winter really hit. And the local food is terrible. And the local bouncers carried scary-big guns. But other than that, I’d go back. (Add this to the list of reasons the Foreign Service should hire me!)
More seriously, it’s interesting to know that the much vaunted benefits of serving overseas come with a financial disincentive. Let’s hope the bill passes the Senate.
@Bets: I haven’t been to Mongolia, but is currently at the top of my list of places I want to visit. When did you go? I actually met the first FSO to ever learn Mongolian (supposedly) for an assignment. She was there for 3 years, and she actually quite enjoyed it, apparently.
Not “all” the other agencies get locality pay… uniformed DoD folks in DAO, ODC, or elsewhere in the embassy don’t get locality pay. If they are stationed in DC, they get locality-based housing allowance.
After having gone through the pain of the defeat (in the Senate) of the public safety workers collective bargaining bill a couple years ago, I prefer not to think too hard about this. So’s I don’t jinx it, you know. My very own Senator killed that one…
Keeping my fingers crossed.
@Kelsey–I was in Mongolia for a month and a half (September/October) a couple years ago as part of a study abroad program. It was awesome. The people we met were very welcoming, and the countryside was beautiful, particularly in the northern part of the country. If you ever get a chance to visit, I would totally recommend going.
One caveat: the local cuisine is very hard on vegetarians. Most dishes involve meat, and even the bread and vegetables are often steamed or boiled in mutton broth. One of the girls on our trip was a strict vegetarian, and she got really sick. When she asked for vegetarian food–no meat–they wanted to make her chicken soup!
Not so fast, Mamuka. All DOD personnel assigned overseas get a COLA allowance, and if they aren’t living in assigned housing, embassy or otherwise, they get Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA). Depending on where you’re assigned, military personnel can be making embarassingly much more than their FSO counterparts.
DoD amployees do NOT make for than FSO. FSOs get Cola the same as all other embassy eplyees exlcuding locals of course.
I hope AFSA doesn’t put out a contract on my life but I never thought that Foreign Service employees overseas deserved the Washington locality pay. The reason, I am retired Foreign Service, is that we received housing and educational benefits that more than compensated for the lack of locality pay. I was out of the country for the last 14 1/2 years of my career and my older son graduated from a private international school in one country and my younger son from an internatiional school in another country. I could not have afforded the $8,000 annual tuition for these schools. During this time, I had most ofmy housing expenses paid - rent and utilities - and, in effect, I used the rent payments from the tenant in my house in Virginia to pay my mortgage. Since these benefits were tax-free, the $40,000 in annual housing and educational benefits would be the equivalent of about $60,000 in additional taxable compensation. I finished my FS career as a FS 2 Step 14. My “conpensation package” for being overseas put me at the same pay level as a mid-level SES employee in the Washington area. Not bad.