4 ms·
The GS schedule has location adjustments. They don't always keep up with the actual cost of living in a location. The NYC area means there's a 37% boost to pay,
by Kalium 2y ago
The GS schedule has location adjustments. They don't always keep up with the actual cost of living in a location. The NYC area means there's a 37% boost to pay, but NYC is not just 37% more expensive to live in than baseline.
- lazide 2y agoYeah, NYC is more like 10x compared to somewhere like New Mexico. It’s a typical gov’t employment issue. It’s also why so many military bases and gov’t centers (except for HQ type areas) tend to be in the middle of nowhere - the folks who man them can actually afford to live there. It’s also a huge kickback to Congress/house members (especially conservative ones), since military tends to vote conservative, and those areas also end up quite dependent on military/gov’t funding (Military Town, or industry town). So they can lock in votes by keeping relatively well paid jobs/income in areas dependent on them doing so, and those people will be relatively happy because compared to other options they do pretty well. Most officers end up owning multiple homes (and renting them out) as they move around the country, for instance. Not sure about now, but even E5s can end up with a house in many of these places, and that’s only like $42k/yr. The ones that get screwed are the ones low in the totem pole who end up in high COL areas, but those folks are usually pretty ambitious (hence why they are near the HQ/exciting area) and low overhead.