The updated pay tables were issued department‑wide by the War Department (the Department of Defense), through its Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service (DCPAS) Wage and Salary Division, after approval by the department’s wage committee—not by a single service such as the Army.
The article does not give one uniform effective date. Under Federal Wage System rules, new or revised wage schedules generally take effect at the start of the first applicable pay period after the schedule is issued for each wage area, and employees then receive any retroactive back pay if implementation was delayed—as the article notes will occur here. Exact effective dates vary by wage area and schedule and are set by the lead agency (DoD) under 5 U.S.C. 5343 and 5 CFR part 532.
For Federal Wage System employees, “prevailing wages” are the hourly pay rates being paid in the local labor market for similar trade, craft, and labor jobs. DoD (as lead agency) and OPM determine these rates by conducting regular wage surveys of private‑sector and other non‑federal employers in each wage area, then setting FWS wage schedules so that federal rates reflect the overall pattern and level of local wages for comparable work, as required by 5 U.S.C. 5343 and OPM’s FWS operating manual.
The update applies to the War Department’s Federal Wage System (“wage grade”) workforce—about 140,000 blue‑collar employees in roughly 210 trade, craft, and labor occupations such as welders, pipefitters, plumbers, electricians, sheet‑metal workers, and mechanics who repair ships, submarines, aircraft, and other equipment—at installations across all FWS wage areas nationwide (and associated DoD sites). It does not change coverage: it uses the existing Federal Wage System structure and wage‑area maps defined in 5 CFR part 532.
Federal Wage System wage tables are updated on a recurring schedule driven mainly by local wage surveys and statutory pay rules. By regulation, the lead agency must conduct full‑scale wage surveys in each wage area at least every 2 years, with additional wage‑change surveys and annual government‑wide adjustments (subject to limits in appropriations laws); new survey data, changes to wage‑area boundaries, or special recruitment/retention needs can all trigger revised schedules.
Yes. Higher rates on the new wage tables raise employees’ basic hourly pay, which in turn increases gross and take‑home pay (subject to taxes and deductions) and raises associated premium payments such as overtime, night, Sunday, and holiday pay that are calculated from the basic rate. The change does not create a new “locality pay” program for FWS employees—their locality is already built into the wage‑area schedule—but it does not by itself alter non‑pay benefits like health insurance, leave rules, or retirement coverage.
Employees can access the full updated Federal Wage System pay tables on the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service’s Wage and Salary website at wageandsalary.dcpas.osd.mil, which hosts all DoD FWS wage schedules via an interactive map. Government‑wide guidance on how agencies must implement prevailing‑rate pay adjustments is provided in OPM’s annual “Prevailing Rate Pay Adjustments” memoranda and related materials on opm.gov.