I The line on your SF-50 that decides your paycheck
Locality pay is authorized under 5 U.S.C. 5304 and administered under 5 CFR Part 531, Subpart F. The rate you receive is determined by your official duty station — the location recorded on your Notification of Personnel Action, form SF-50 — and not by where you physically sit on any given day.
This is the whole of it, and almost every dispute about telework and pay comes from not internalizing it. An employee working from a kitchen table in Richmond whose SF-50 says Washington, DC receives the Washington-Baltimore locality rate. An employee sitting in the same kitchen whose SF-50 says Richmond receives the Richmond rate. The desks are identical. The paychecks are not.
Because the SF-50 is the operative document, a change to your locality pay requires a Change in Duty Station personnel action. Agencies process these on their own timelines — HHS policy, for example, states the new locality rate takes effect once the personnel action is effective, generally within one pay period of receipt. The practical implication is that your pay does not change the day you move; it changes when the paperwork does.
Your locality rate is a property of your duty station, not your work location — so the question that matters is never "where am I working?" but "what does my SF-50 say, and is my agency about to change it?"
II Telework and remote work are not synonyms
Federal employees use these words interchangeably. The government does not, and the difference is where the money is.
| Telework | Remote work | |
|---|---|---|
| Official duty station | The agency worksite | Your home or alternate location |
| Expectation of reporting | Yes, on non-telework days | No regular in-person expectation |
| Locality rate paid | The office's rate | The rate for your location |
| Governing definition | 5 U.S.C. 6501 | Agency designation of duty station |
| Travel to the office | Ordinary commuting, not reimbursable | May be official travel |
Under 5 U.S.C. 6501, telework is an arrangement where you perform your duties from an agency-approved location other than the office where you would normally report. Nothing in that definition moves your duty station. Remote work does move it — that is the defining feature — and every pay consequence follows from the move rather than from the work pattern.
The reason this trips people is that a telework arrangement can drift into functional remote work without anyone filing paperwork. An employee approved for two days of telework who gradually stops coming in at all has not changed their SF-50, but they have stopped meeting the standard that justifies the office rate. That gap is exactly what the next section is about.
III The twice-per-pay-period rule
OPM guidance establishes the operative threshold: employees with telework agreements are considered to be located at their agency worksite as long as they report in person at least twice during each two-week pay period.
Meet that standard and you are a teleworker whose duty station is the office, and you keep the office locality rate. Fall below it and your arrangement is functionally remote work regardless of what the agreement is titled, and the agency is expected to change your official duty station to where you actually work — with the locality rate following.
Two days per pay period is one day a week on average. It is a low bar in schedule terms and an absolute one in geographic terms: if you live far enough from the office that showing up twice a fortnight is impractical, you are a remote worker in every sense that affects your pay, whatever your agreement says.
Two practical notes. The threshold is per pay period, not averaged across a month or a quarter — a week of leave does not create a credit to spend later. And it is your agency's records that establish compliance, which makes accurate time and attendance reporting a pay issue rather than an administrative one.
IV Where policy stands in 2026
The landscape changed sharply and is worth stating as a sequence rather than a conclusion, because it is still moving.
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Telework Enhancement Act establishes eligibility presumptions and agency program requirements |
| January 20, 2025 | Presidential memorandum directs agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and return employees to in-person work full time, with exceptions agency heads deem necessary |
| January 22, 2025 | OPM implementing memo to agencies on telework policy requirements |
| December 31, 2025 | OPM issues a revised Guide to Telework and Remote Work establishing a sparing-use standard |
| Early 2026 | OPM guidance reaffirms in-office requirements; exempts military spouses and Foreign Service spouses working overseas from on-site requirements |
| Early 2026 | OPM reports in-office rates near 90 percent, with roughly 10 percent of employees holding exemptions |
One point of law is worth stating clearly because it is widely misunderstood in both directions. The Telework Enhancement Act has not been repealed or amended. It remains the governing statute, and the January 2025 memorandum states it must be implemented consistent with applicable law. What changed is policy and practice, not the statutory framework. That matters if you are evaluating an appeal or an accommodation request, though it does not create an entitlement to any particular schedule.
OPM has also offered relocation packages to remote employees located more than 50 miles from their assigned duty station, which is a useful signal of how agencies are handling the geographic mismatch the pandemic created. Where such a package is offered, it is worth pricing against the locality change it is compensating for.
V What a duty station change actually costs
The 2026 locality map has 58 areas — 57 named plus the catch-all Rest of U.S. — with differentials from 17.06 percent to 46.34 percent. A duty station change moves you between two points on that range, and the difference applies to your entire base rate.
A GS-13 moving out of Washington-Baltimore
A GS-13 Step 7 with a base rate near $110,600 earns roughly $148,100 in the Washington-Baltimore area at 33.94 percent.
The same grade and step at the Rest of U.S. rate of 17.06 percent earns roughly $129,500 — a difference of about $18,600 per year in basic pay.
One structural note on 2026 specifically: the pay adjustment was a 1.0 percent across-the-board increase to base rates only, with every locality percentage held at its 2025 level. The gaps between areas are therefore static for the moment rather than widening, which does not change the arithmetic of a move but does mean the differential you are looking at today is the one that applied last year.
Employees at the Executive Schedule Level IV cap of $197,200 are a special case: they are already capped, so additional locality does not raise their basic pay and a move to a higher-locality area may produce no increase at all. Senior GS-15s in high-cost areas should check the cap before assuming a differential applies to them. The full locality picture is in Topic 02.
VI Telework Locality Impact Calculator
Enter your base rate and the two locality rates in play. The tool computes the pay difference, tests your arrangement against the twice-per-pay-period threshold, and converts the change into annual annuity dollars if it lands inside your High-3 window.
What does the duty station question cost you?
Locality percentages for 2026 are frozen at 2025 levels. Rest of U.S. is 17.06%; the highest area, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, is 46.34%.
Basic Pay for the Same GS-13 Step 7 Across Locality Areas
Annual basic pay for an identical grade and step at a $110,600 base rate, under a representative sample of 2026 locality rates. The work, the position description, and the performance are the same in every bar. Only the duty station differs.
VII The return-to-office relocation dilemma
The hardest version of this problem belongs to employees who relocated during the remote-work years and now face an in-person requirement at a duty station they no longer live near. There are four options and none of them is free.
- Move back. You retain the office locality rate and your existing position. You absorb relocation costs and whatever the move means for your household, and unless the agency authorizes a relocation incentive or PCS entitlement, most of it is on you.
- Commute to the threshold. If reporting twice per pay period is physically possible, you keep the rate. Long-distance commuting two days a fortnight is a real pattern, and the commuting cost is not reimbursable — it is ordinary commuting even when it involves a flight.
- Accept the duty station change. Your locality rate drops to your actual location. This is the cleanest option administratively and the most expensive one, especially if you are near retirement.
- Find a position where you live. A lateral to an agency office near your home preserves grade and step while changing locality to your actual area — which may still be a pay cut, but comes with a job that fits your geography.
How far are you from retirement? An employee fifteen years out is making a salary decision they can recover from. An employee three years out is making a permanent annuity decision, because a lower locality rate inside the High-3 window reduces every payment for life. The same choice has very different stakes at the two ends of a career.
VIII Exceptions, accommodations, and where they differ
Two different mechanisms can produce a non-standard work location, and confusing them weakens both requests.
Policy exceptions. Agency heads retain authority to grant exceptions they deem necessary. OPM guidance has identified categories including disability and qualifying medical conditions, other compelling reasons certified by the agency head, and situational telework approved case by case. Guidance issued in early 2026 also exempts military spouses and Foreign Service spouses working overseas from on-site requirements. These are discretionary — the agency decides, and the decision can be revisited.
Reasonable accommodation. This is a legal obligation under disability law, not a telework flexibility, and it runs on a different track with its own process, documentation standard, and appeal rights. An employee whose medical condition requires working from home should generally pursue accommodation rather than asking for a telework exception, because the legal posture is stronger and the agency's obligations are different. The accommodation process is covered in Workplace Topic 30.
The distinction matters procedurally: a denied telework request is a management decision with limited recourse; a denied accommodation request has an established complaint path. Framing a medical need as a scheduling preference gives away the stronger of the two positions.
IX What the Telework Enhancement Act still guarantees
The 2010 statute remains law, and it does three things that survive any policy cycle.
- It establishes an eligibility presumption. Employees are presumed eligible for telework unless they meet specific exceptions — a likely decrease in employee or agency performance, duties requiring daily handling of secure materials, daily duties that cannot be performed remotely, or discipline for certain conduct including unexcused absence exceeding five days in a year.
- It bars differential treatment. Employees may not be treated differently because they telework for purposes including performance evaluation and career advancement opportunities. This is the provision worth knowing if a telework arrangement appears to be affecting your rating or your candidacy for a promotion.
- It requires programs, training, and agreements. Participation is voluntary, arrangements are documented in written agreements covering performance expectations, work hours, and equipment use, and agencies must maintain a program and train participants.
What the Act does not do is create a right to any particular schedule. Eligibility is not entitlement, and an agency operating within the exceptions is on solid ground.
X If your arrangement is revoked
Agencies retain authority to revoke telework agreements, including where telework appears to diminish performance or where an employee has repeated unexcused absences. If yours is revoked, the sequence that protects you is administrative rather than adversarial.
- Get it in writing. Request the revocation and its stated basis in writing. A verbal instruction is difficult to respond to and impossible to appeal.
- Check your SF-50 immediately. Revocation of telework does not by itself change your duty station. If a Change in Duty Station action is also being processed, that is a separate and much more consequential event — confirm which is happening.
- Ask about the reporting timeline. Agencies generally allow a transition period. Knowing the effective date lets you plan rather than react.
- Evaluate whether an accommodation applies. If a medical condition is involved, that is a different process with different obligations.
- If you are in a bargaining unit, involve your union. Telework terms are frequently addressed in collective bargaining agreements, and your representative will know what your agreement provides. See Workplace Topic 06.
- Document everything contemporaneously. Dates, instructions, and who said what. See Workplace Topic 44.
XI The High-3 consequence nobody mentions
Locality pay is part of basic pay. Basic pay is what the High-3 average salary is computed from. The High-3 multiplies every year of service in the FERS annuity formula. Those three facts chain together into the most under-discussed consequence of a duty station change.
A GS-13 who accepts a move from Washington-Baltimore to Rest of U.S. three years before retiring reduces basic pay by roughly $18,600. Sustained across the 36-month window, that lowers the High-3 by approximately the same amount. At 30 years of service and the 1.1 percent multiplier, the annuity falls by about $6,140 per year — permanently, with COLA applied to the smaller base, and with the survivor annuity computed on it as well.
If a move to a lower-locality area is going to happen regardless, the least expensive time for it is after you separate. Your annuity is fixed at separation based on your High-3; where you live afterward is irrelevant to it. Moving three years early converts a lifestyle decision into a permanent pension cut for no benefit.
The reverse is equally worth planning: a move to a higher-locality duty station that is in place before the 36-month window opens raises the High-3 for the whole window. The full set of levers is in Topic 35 on High-3 optimization, and the annuity mechanics in Benefits Topic 11.
XII The playbook
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You telework and want to keep your rate | Report in person at least twice per pay period, every pay period, and make sure your time records show it. |
| You moved during the remote years | Price all four options — move back, commute to the threshold, accept the change, or find a position where you live. |
| You are within three years of retiring | Do not accept a lower-locality duty station. The reduction is permanent in your annuity. |
| You have a medical need | Pursue reasonable accommodation, not a telework exception. Different track, stronger posture. |
| Your agreement was revoked | Get it in writing, check whether your SF-50 is also changing, and involve your union if you have one. |
| You are offered a relocation package | Price it against the locality differential it is compensating for, not against the moving costs alone. |
| You are at the EX-IV pay cap | Locality strategy does not apply — you are already capped at $197,200. |
What to verify this pay period
- Pull your most recent SF-50 and read the official duty station field. That single line determines your locality rate, not your work pattern.
- Count your in-person reports for the current pay period. Two is the threshold, it does not average across pay periods, and your time records are the evidence.
- Look up your locality percentage and the one for any area you might move to. The 2026 spread runs from 17.06% to 46.34% across 58 areas.
- If you are within three years of retirement, treat any proposed duty station change as a permanent annuity decision rather than a salary decision.
- If a move to a lower-cost area is coming anyway, schedule it for after you separate.
- If a medical condition drives your need to work from home, file for reasonable accommodation rather than requesting a telework exception.
- Keep a written copy of your telework agreement and any modification to it.
- If you are in a bargaining unit, read what your collective bargaining agreement says about telework before you need it.
- Check whether you are at or near the EX-IV cap of $197,200 before assuming a locality differential would benefit you.
Frequently asked questions
Not by itself. Locality pay is tied to your official duty station as recorded on your SF-50, not to the physical location where you happen to perform work on a given day. Under OPM guidance, an employee with a telework agreement is treated as located at the agency worksite as long as they report in person at least twice per biweekly pay period. Meet that threshold and you keep the locality rate for the office. Fall below it and your arrangement is functionally remote work, which requires your official duty station to be changed to where you actually work — and your locality rate changes with it.
The distinction is legal, not casual. Under telework, your official duty station remains the agency worksite and you work elsewhere on approved days. Under remote work, your home or alternate location is designated as your official duty station and there is no expectation of regular reporting to an agency facility. The pay consequence follows directly: a teleworker keeps the office locality rate, while a remote worker is paid the locality rate for wherever their duty station is now located. Employees frequently use the words interchangeably and then discover their pay was based on the legal definition.
It is the threshold that separates a teleworker from a remote worker for locality pay purposes. OPM guidance provides that employees with telework agreements are considered to be located at their agency worksite so long as they report in person at least twice during each two-week pay period. That is the test for keeping the higher-cost office locality rate. An employee who cannot make that commute is effectively working remotely, and the agency is expected to change the official duty station accordingly, with the locality rate following.
A presidential memorandum of January 20, 2025 directed executive branch agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and return employees to in-person work at their duty stations full time, with exceptions agency heads deem necessary. OPM followed with implementing guidance in January 2025, issued a revised Guide to Telework and Remote Work on December 31, 2025 establishing a sparing-use standard, and reaffirmed the in-office requirement in guidance issued in early 2026. By early 2026 OPM reported in-office rates near 90 percent, with roughly 10 percent of employees holding exemptions. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 has not been repealed and remains the governing statute.
Potentially a great deal. In 2026 locality differentials range from 17.06 percent in the Rest of U.S. area to 46.34 percent in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, across 58 locality pay areas. A GS-13 moving from the Washington-Baltimore area at 33.94 percent to Rest of U.S. loses roughly 12.6 percentage points of basic pay, which on a base rate near $110,000 is close to $14,000 a year. The change takes effect once the Change in Duty Station personnel action is processed, generally within a pay period of the request.
Yes, and permanently if it happens near the end of your career. Locality pay is part of basic pay, so it feeds directly into your High-3 average salary, which multiplies every year of service in the FERS annuity formula. A duty station change to a lower-locality area within three years of retiring reduces your High-3 and therefore every annuity payment for the rest of your life, plus the survivor annuity computed on that base. If a move to a lower-cost area is going to happen anyway, the least expensive time for it is after you separate.
Yes. Telework participation is voluntary on the employee's side but is not an entitlement, and agencies retain authority to revoke agreements — including where telework appears to diminish performance or where an employee has repeated unexcused absences. The Telework Enhancement Act does guarantee that employees are not treated differently because they telework for purposes such as performance evaluation and career advancement, and it establishes eligibility presumptions with specific exceptions, but it does not create a right to a particular schedule.
Agency heads retain authority to grant exceptions they deem necessary, and OPM guidance has identified categories including disability and qualifying medical conditions, other compelling reasons certified by the agency head, and situational telework approved case by case. Guidance issued in early 2026 also exempts military spouses and Foreign Service spouses working overseas from on-site requirements. Reasonable accommodation under disability law operates on its own legal track rather than as a telework flexibility, and is evaluated under that framework.