Special Pay and Benefits Granted to Select Groups of General Schedule Employees

In response to a congressional request, GAO identified special pay or benefits which Congress has granted to air traffic controllers and other groups of Federal employees.

The major special pay and benefits granted to select General Schedule employees are: (1) higher minimum rates of pay for certain occupations where private industry rates are substantially above the statutory Federal pay rates and where the Government has problems recruiting and retaining qualified individuals; (2) special overtime pay provisions for Government inspectors and air traffic controllers; (3) administratively uncontrollable overtime pay provisions for those law enforcement positions that require employees to work substantial amounts of irregular, unscheduled overtime; (4) standby duty pay for those positions, such as firefighters, that require employees to remain at their assigned duty stations even when they are not actually working; (5) physicians' comparability allowances where agencies have problems recruiting or retaining physicians; (6) exemption from the dual pay ceiling for medical officers; (7) cost-of-living allowances for civilian employees in foreign and nonforeign areas; and (8) early retirement for air traffic controllers, law enforcement and firefighter personnel, non-Indian employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service, employees with the Panama Canal service, and bankruptcy judges.