I Which one governs you
Special Rate or Locality Rate?
Enter the special rate from your table. The tool works out which authority pays you more.
II The rule
An employee is entitled to the highest applicable rate of basic pay as their payable rate. The regulations define the highest applicable rate range as the range applicable to your position that provides the highest rates of basic pay, excluding retained rates.
If you meet the coverage conditions for a special rate schedule but are entitled to a higher rate under other legal authority, you must be paid at that higher rate. And where a special rate is surpassed by a higher locality rate, the entitlement to the special rate is terminated.
The two authorities compete. Adding a special rate supplement on top of locality pay is not a thing that happens.
The portion of a special rate paid above your ordinary GS rate is called the special rate supplement — which is why it looks like an add-on. It is a component of one rate, not a second payment.
III Hybrid ranges
A single grade can sit on two different authorities at once, which is the part almost nobody knows.
A hybrid schedule
One grade, split between authorities by step.
Steps 5 and above: governed by the locality rate.
Two colleagues at the same grade in the same office, paid under different authorities, because the special rate table only out-paces locality at the bottom of the range.
This is also why a step increase can feel like it lands oddly: crossing from the special-rate portion into the locality portion of a hybrid range does not produce the increment you were expecting from the step increase timeline.
IV Why yours disappeared
Locality percentages have risen substantially over the years. Many special rate tables have not kept pace — and when a locality rate exceeds a special rate schedule, or a portion of it, the special rate is terminated.
It reads like a loss on the SF-50, and it is not. You are being paid the higher of the two authorities, which is precisely what the rules require. The special rate stopped applying because locality had already passed it.
There is a real consequence, though. If you move to a lower-locality duty station, a special rate that was dormant may govern again — so the pay difference between two locations is not always the simple locality gap. Check both tables before agreeing to a move.
V Finding your table
Your SF-50 records the pay rate determinant and the pay table you are paid under. That is the authoritative answer for your own position — not a general table, not a job announcement, not this page.
OPM publishes the special rate tables themselves, indexed by table number, occupational series and location. A vacancy announcement will normally say whether a position is covered, because it changes the advertised salary range materially.
- Find the pay rate determinant and table number on your SF-50.
- Look up that table on OPM’s site rather than assuming.
- Compare the special rate against your locality rate at your grade and step.
- Remember you get the higher, never the sum.
- Check whether your grade is on a hybrid range split by step.
- If your special rate vanished, check whether locality simply overtook it.
- Before a move, compare both authorities at both duty stations.
- Confirm anything that affects your pay with your servicing HR office.
Questions
No. You are entitled to the highest applicable rate of basic pay, and that is one rate rather than a sum. The regulations define the highest applicable rate range as the range applicable to your position that provides the highest rates of basic pay, excluding retained rates. If your special rate is surpassed by a higher locality rate, your entitlement to the special rate is terminated. The two authorities compete; they do not stack.
A higher pay schedule OPM may establish under 5 U.S.C. 5305 and 5 CFR part 530 subpart C for specified categories of General Schedule positions, where it is necessary to address existing or likely significant recruitment or retention difficulties. It can apply to particular occupational series, grades, areas or any subdivision of those. The portion paid above your ordinary GS rate is called the special rate supplement.
Almost certainly because locality pay overtook it. Locality percentages have risen substantially over the years while many special rate tables have not kept pace, and when a locality rate exceeds a special rate schedule, or a portion of that schedule, the special rate is terminated. Nothing was taken from you in the sense people usually fear: you are being paid the higher of the two authorities, which is exactly what the rules require.
Yes, and this surprises most people. Positions may have a special rate governing some steps and a locality rate governing others within the same grade, which is commonly called a hybrid schedule or range. A worked example would be a grade where steps 1 to 4 are covered by the special rate and steps 5 and above are covered by the locality rate. Two colleagues at the same grade in the same office can therefore be paid under different authorities.
Yes. For any given grade, a minimum special rate may not exceed the maximum rate of basic pay for the rate range, excluding any locality rate or other special rate, by more than 30 percent. Special rates are also subject to the same overall limit on total basic pay that applies elsewhere, so they cannot be used to exceed the Executive Schedule Level IV ceiling.
A special rate is a rate of basic pay, which is the category that matters for the high-3 average salary behind a FERS annuity and for agency contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. That distinguishes it from allowances such as non-foreign COLA or overseas post allowances, which increase take-home pay without building any pension. Because pay administration rules are detailed, confirm the treatment of your own rate with your servicing human resources office.
Your SF-50 records the pay rate determinant and the pay table under which you are paid, which is the authoritative answer for your own position. OPM publishes the special rate tables themselves, indexed by table number, occupational series and location. A job announcement will also normally state whether a position is covered by a special rate table, because it materially changes the advertised salary range.
Pay administration rules govern the transition rather than leaving you to fall to the ordinary rate without protection. Where an employee's rate of basic pay equals a step in the highest applicable rate range, pay is set at that step, and pay retention provisions may apply where the existing rate exceeds the maximum of the new range. This is exactly the kind of situation to take to your servicing human resources office rather than to work out from general reading.