Whether a return-to-office direction is enforceable against you is a workplace question covered in RTO 2026. This article covers only what happens to your pay if the direction changes your duty station — which is a different question with a much more definite answer.
I The duty station is the whole thing
Locality pay is computed from your official duty station as recorded in your personnel records. Not your address. Not where you sat last Tuesday. The field on the SF-50.
Everything else follows from that. A return-to-office direction changes your pay if and only if it changes that field.
Enormous numbers of federal employees teleworked for years while their duty station stayed exactly where it always was. They were paid the office's locality rate throughout — correctly. For those employees RTO restores a commute and changes nothing in the bank account. The people with a genuine pay question are the smaller group whose duty station was formally moved, and they can identify themselves in thirty seconds by reading one field.
II The two-per-pay-period threshold
The operative rule: an employee with a telework agreement is considered located at the agency worksite for locality pay purposes as long as they report in person at least twice per biweekly pay period.
That is the line. Not a proportion of days, not a percentage of hours — two in-person reports per pay period. Meet it and you stay on the office's locality table however much you work from home. Fall below it consistently and you are functioning as a remote worker, and locality pay must follow your actual worksite.
The distinction between telework and remote work, and what each does to the duty station, is set out in remote work versus telework.
III Three situations, three outcomes
| Your situation | Duty station on SF-50 | Pay effect of RTO |
|---|---|---|
| Teleworked, never moved | Agency office throughout | None — commute only |
| Moved, duty station never changed | Original office | None — you were already paid that rate |
| Moved, duty station changed to your area | Your location | Changes with the new station |
The third case, both directions
An employee relocated from Washington to a Rest-of-U.S. area during the telework era and had their duty station formally changed. They are now directed back to the DC office.
Run it the other way and the arithmetic reverses: an employee whose station moved to a higher-locality area and who is directed back to a lower one takes a pay cut. Same rule, opposite outcome, and only the SF-50 tells you which one you are.
IV RTO Pay Impact Calculator
Enter your grade and the two locality areas. The calculator shows the pay change, and flags whether a change should be happening at all.
What Does the Move Do to My Pay?
Estimates only. Locality percentages are frozen at 2025 levels for 2026 under EO 14368; the EX-IV cap is $197,200.
V If you have to move back
Whether the agency pays for it is an agency decision under the Federal Travel Regulation and agency policy. It is not automatic, and a direction to report to a different office does not by itself authorise relocation expenses.
Since the 2017 tax law removed the moving expense exclusion, relocation reimbursements for civilian federal employees are taxable income — and that change is now permanent. A $30,000 relocation package is not $30,000 in your pocket. The Relocation Income Tax Allowance and Withholding Tax Allowance exist to offset part of the burden, but they do not make the move tax-neutral and they involve their own timing complications. Model the tax before you budget the move. The full mechanics are in relocation allowances and PCS orders.
VI What it does to your high-3
Unlike almost every other pay adjustment covered elsewhere on this site, locality pay is basic pay. It counts toward the high-3 average salary and toward agency TSP contributions.
That cuts both ways, and the timing matters more than the amount.
- A move to a higher-locality duty station in your final three years raises the high-3 and therefore the annuity for life.
- A move to a lower-locality station in that window lowers it, permanently.
An employee within three years of retirement being directed to a lower-locality office is facing an annuity reduction, not merely a pay cut — and that is worth raising explicitly rather than absorbing quietly. Where the move follows a downgrade rather than a relocation, grade and pay retention may apply instead.
VII The playbook
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Directed back to the office | Read your SF-50 duty station field first. It answers the pay question in seconds. |
| Duty station is the office already | No pay change. The commute is the whole effect. |
| Duty station was moved to your area | Expect a locality change. Ask for the new station and rate in writing. |
| Still teleworking some days | Two in-person reports per pay period keeps the office station and rate. |
| Reporting less than twice | Your locality should follow your actual worksite. A mismatch is a pay error. |
| Asked to relocate | Relocation expenses are not automatic. Get the authorisation in writing. |
| Relocation authorised | Reimbursements are taxable. Model the tax before budgeting the move. |
| Within three years of retirement | A lower-locality station reduces your annuity, not just your pay. Raise it. |
| SF-50 and instructions disagree | Raise it with HR in writing. This affects your annuity too. |
| Weighing whether to comply | That is a workplace question, not a pay one. Different framework, different advice. |
When the direction arrives
- Pull your most recent SF-50 and read the official duty station field.
- Check which locality rate your LES is actually applying.
- Confirm whether the direction changes your duty station or only your commute.
- Count your in-person reports over the last three pay periods.
- If a duty station change is proposed, get the new station and rate in writing.
- Ask explicitly whether relocation expenses are authorised.
- If they are, model the tax on the reimbursement before committing.
- Ask about RITA and WTA and how they are timed.
- If you are near retirement, calculate the high-3 effect before agreeing.
- Keep every written instruction about where and when to report.
Frequently asked questions
It changes your pay if it changes your official duty station, and not otherwise. Locality pay attaches to the duty station recorded in your personnel records, not to where you live. An employee whose duty station was always the agency office and who simply resumes commuting sees no pay change at all. An employee whose duty station was moved to their home during the telework era, and who is now directed back to an office in a different locality area, sees their locality rate change with it.
It is the threshold that keeps the agency worksite as your official duty station. OPM has reaffirmed that an employee with a telework agreement is considered located at the agency worksite for locality pay purposes as long as they report in person at least twice each biweekly pay period. Meet it and you stay on that office's locality table regardless of how many days you work from home. Fall below it consistently and you are functioning as a remote worker, and locality pay must follow your actual worksite.
That depends on what your SF-50 says. If your duty station was formally changed to your new location, you have been paid that area's locality rate, and a direction to return to an office elsewhere is a duty station change in the other direction with a corresponding pay change. If your duty station stayed at the original office, you have been paid that rate throughout, and returning does not change your pay although it may change your life considerably. Pull the SF-50 before assuming either.
That is an agency decision governed by the Federal Travel Regulation and agency policy, and it is not automatic. The critical point if relocation expenses are authorized is that reimbursements for civilian federal employees have been taxable since the 2017 tax law removed the moving expense exclusion, and that change was made permanent. Relocation Income Tax Allowance and Withholding Tax Allowance exist to offset part of the resulting tax burden, but you should model the tax consequence rather than treating a reimbursement as tax-free.
The enforceability of a return-to-office direction is a workplace question rather than a pay question, and it depends on your appointment, your bargaining unit status and what your agreement said. What is clear on the pay side is that if you are directed to a different official duty station and you accept it, your locality rate changes with the station. If you decline a directed reassignment the consequences run through the adverse action framework rather than the pay framework.
Not if you meet the reporting threshold. The test is not the proportion of days worked at home but whether you report to the agency worksite at least twice per biweekly pay period. Three telework days a week with two in-office reports each pay period keeps the office duty station and its locality rate. The number that matters is the count of in-person reports, not the percentage of hours.
Restrictive. A January 2025 executive order required most federal employees to return to in-person work full time, and OPM guidance updated at the end of 2025 states that employees should generally be working full-time in person, with telework used sparingly and reserved for approved exceptions such as disabilities, medical conditions or compelling agency needs. By early 2026 roughly 90 percent of federal employees were working on site and telework participation had fallen from about 61 percent to 28 percent.
Your SF-50 and your Leave and Earnings Statement, together. The SF-50 records your official duty station and the LES shows which locality rate is actually being applied. If those two are consistent with each other and with where you are being told to report, nothing needs doing. If the duty station on file does not match either your agreement or your instructions, raise it with your servicing HR office in writing, because a misclassified duty station affects your annuity as well as your paycheque.