The Foreign Service Journal, May 2005

American Foreign Service Association • May 2005 AFSA NEWS FSA has ratcheted up efforts to eliminate the ever-increas- ing pay disparity between Foreign Service employees serving in Washington and those serv- ing overseas. Service abroad, in often dif- ficult and dangerous posts, should be encouraged, not penalized. The current salary structure does just the opposite. The Federal Pay Comparability Act of 1990 denies locality pay adjustments for Foreign Service personnel working over- seas. As a direct result, overseas salaries of Foreign Service personnel below the OC (counselor) level are now16 percent lower than those of theirWashington-based col- leagues. The intelligence community working overseas receives Washington- level pay, while the Foreign Service does not. According to a June 2002 General AccountingOffice (now theGovernment AccountabilityOffice) report, the pay dis- paritywill cause problems for staffingover- seas hardship posts, and by 2010, even those serving in 20 percent hardship dif- ferential posts will fall behind. AFSA estimates that the financial penalty for overseas service will cause a Foreign Service employee who entered the Service in 1995 to lose, during a typ- ical 27-year career, $444,160 in combined pay and retirement savings. AFSA has been pushing this issue for over five years, and has been increasing- ly vocal about the problem in recent months. In February, AFSA sent out a two-page hand-out detailing the problem and calling for pay adjustments to bring the salaries of overseas Foreign Service employees up to the Washington level. The hand-out was sent to over 20media outlets, which resulted in follow-on interviews with AFSA officials and cov- erage in numerous publications. Articles on the topic appeared in the Washington Times , the Washington Post , Government Executive , and Federal Times and on the “Federal News Radio” talk show. “This issue gets more and more important as this gap grows wider and wider,” AFSAState Vice President Louise Crane said in aMarch7 Federal Times arti- cle. “I think this year we fell on fewer deaf ears than we have fallen on before. There’s an understanding it doesn’t seem very fair to send someone to a high-pri- ority post [and then ask them to] take a 16-percent pay cut.” AFSA President John Limbert and LouiseCranemetwithactingUnder Secre- tary for Management John Burnham in February and raised the locality pay issue. Burnhamassured themthat SecretaryRice is well aware of the issue. John Limbert took the opportunity to raise the locality pay question at Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s first town hall meeting with State employees on Jan. 31. The Secretary ac- knowledged that “it’s an extremely impor- tant issue.” Although the money for the pay adjustment was taken out of the Fiscal Year 2006 budget by the Office of Management and Budget, AFSA believes A AFSA’S ISSUE NUMBER ONE The Struggle for Pay Equity BY SHAWN DORMAN Inside This Issue: STATE: PERFORMANCE PAY ..............3 FCS: THOUGHTS ON FCS...................4 CAREER DEVELOPMENT.....................5 Q&A: RETIREES...................................6 SOCIAL INSECURITY ...........................7 FMM: CHILDREN & THE FS................9 AFSA-DACOR RECEPTION AFSA Honors Retirees for Service O n April 1, AFSA hosted a cham- pagne reception in honor of those retiring from the State Department Foreign Service and Civil Service. AFSAandDACOR(Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired) co-host retirementeventsaboutthreetimesayear for each job search programgraduating classof retiringForeignServiceandCivil ServiceStateDepartmentemployees. The receptions provide an opportunity for AFSAtothanknewretireesfortheiryears of service. At the April reception, AFSA President John Limbert thanked the retirees for their valuable contributions andwished themsuccess in their future careers and endeavors. there is hope for FY 2007. AFSA has taken every opportunity to let the new team at State know that the pay dispar- ity problem must be resolved. Parity existed prior to the enactment of the 1990 Pay Comparability Act, and must be re-established. This issue remains Issue Number One for AFSA. ▫