Making government a competitive employer
through locality pay.

Securing across-the-board salary increases is always a priority.

But across-the-board increases don't recognize that $1 in one part of a state does not have the same value as $1 in another part.

That is one point the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) will make at the bargaining table this year.

In past contracts, PEF has secured extra pay for its members who work in higher cost-of-living areas like the downstate and mid-Hudson regions, which are made up of New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Duchess and Putnam Counties.

A study jointly commissioned by PEF and the American Federation of State, Municipal and County Employees' Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) reveals that the supplements don't go far enough, considering everything from housing costs to property taxes to child care.

Specifically, the study, which was conducted by the Fiscal Policy Institute, found that:

■ Employees who live and work in these areas must earn more than their counterparts in the rest of the state in order to meet basic needs.

For example, 2007 fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Westchester County, which includes White Plains, is $1,395 per month compared with $630 per month in Chemung County, which includes Elmira. The median sales price of a single family home in 2005 in Nassau County, or Long Island, was $475,000 compared with $84,100 in Oneida County, which includes Utica.

■ Federal and local government employee salaries in the downstate and mid-Hudson regions are higher.

■ The state's location pay varies by bargaining unit, sharply contrasting the federal government's "locality pay," which is an across-the-board adjustment based on location, not bargaining unit.

"State agencies are directly competing with both federal and local government employers for skilled workers," according to the study. "To the extent that federal and local government workers are earning higher wages in the two regions eligible for the cost-of-living adjustment than in the rest of the state, there is a need for the state government to continue these cost-of-living adjustments to remain competitive in these labor markets."

In 1990, Congress enacted the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA). The law is a long-term approach to closing the gap between federal government salaries and private sector ones. Under FEPCA, the federal government provides locality pay in addition to base pay.

In 2007, there are 32 locality pay areas. Thirty-one are best characterized as major metropolitan areas and surrounding counties, with all other federal employees falling under the "rest of U.S."

Federal pay increases in 2007 ranged from 1.81 percent for the "rest of U.S." category to 3.02 percent for the "New York-Newark-Bridgeport" locality area, which includes counties in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. (The base salary increase was 1.7 percent.)

For more information about the Fiscal Policy Institute study, visit www.coalitionforlocationpay.org. For more information about federal locality pay, visit the Office of Personnel Management at www.opm.gov.