Calculate Locality Part of Federal Pay Raise
Estimate how much of your federal salary increase comes from the locality adjustment, separate from the across-the-board raise.
Expert Guide: How to Calculate the Locality Part of a Federal Pay Raise
Federal employees often hear that an annual pay raise has two pieces: an across-the-board increase and a locality pay adjustment. The distinction matters. If you want to estimate your new salary accurately, compare job offers, plan retirement deductions, or understand your take-home pay, you need to separate the locality portion from the general increase. This guide explains exactly how to calculate locality part of federal pay raise, why the formula works, and where official numbers come from.
In the General Schedule system, base pay is set first. Then locality pay is applied as a percentage on top of that adjusted base. The annual federal raise can therefore affect employees in two different ways. First, the government may increase GS base rates for everyone under the general increase. Second, it may update locality percentages by area to reflect labor market differences. If you only look at the headline average raise, you miss the amount generated by the locality change itself.
What locality pay really means
Locality pay is intended to narrow the gap between federal and non-federal pay in different geographic labor markets. A federal employee in San Francisco, for example, generally receives a much larger locality percentage than an employee in the Rest of U.S. area because labor market conditions and salaries differ. The Office of Personnel Management publishes the official tables each year, and agencies use those rates to compute final General Schedule salaries.
That means your total salary usually follows this sequence:
- Start with annual base GS salary.
- Apply the across-the-board increase to get the new base rate.
- Apply the new locality rate to that new base rate.
- Compare the result with your old salary to identify total raise, general raise portion, and locality-only portion.
The core formula for the locality-only portion
If you want to isolate the locality part of your raise, do not compare old total salary directly to new total salary. That blends both components together. Instead, compare two hypothetical salaries after the across-the-board raise has already been applied:
- Scenario A: New base pay with the old locality rate.
- Scenario B: New base pay with the new locality rate.
The difference between those two scenarios is the locality-only increase. Written as a formula:
Locality-only raise = New base pay × (New locality rate – Old locality rate)
Since new base pay equals current base pay multiplied by one plus the across-the-board increase, you can also write it as:
Locality-only raise = Current base pay × (1 + across-board rate) × (new locality rate – old locality rate)
Example: suppose your current base salary is $65,000, your current locality rate is 16.82%, the new locality rate is 17.32%, and the across-the-board increase is 4.7%.
- New base pay = $65,000 × 1.047 = $68,055
- Difference in locality rates = 17.32% – 16.82% = 0.50%
- Locality-only raise = $68,055 × 0.005 = $340.28
That $340.28 is the annual amount attributable solely to the locality percentage change. It is not the total raise. The full raise also includes the increase in base pay from the across-the-board adjustment.
How to separate all three pieces of the raise
For budgeting, it helps to break the pay change into these categories:
- Current total salary: current base pay plus current locality pay
- Across-the-board portion: the increase you would get if locality stayed the same
- Locality-only portion: the increase caused by the locality percentage change
- New total salary: salary after both changes are applied
This distinction is especially useful if you are reviewing a pay table announcement and want to know why your increase differs from the national average. Two employees with the same GS grade and step but in different locality areas can experience different total raises if their locality percentages changed by different amounts.
Official data points that matter
When you calculate locality part of federal pay raise, the official numbers usually come from annual salary tables and Executive Order implementation. For recent years, one of the most cited figures was the average 2024 federal civilian pay raise of 5.2%, made up of a 4.7% across-the-board increase plus an average 0.5% locality adjustment. That average was not distributed equally. Your actual result depended on your locality area and grade-step position.
| Pay Year Statistic | Figure | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 average federal civilian pay raise | 5.2% | Widely cited combined increase for GS employees, blending general and locality changes. |
| 2024 across-the-board GS increase | 4.7% | This affects the GS base salary before locality is added. |
| Average locality component in 2024 | 0.5% | This is the average locality portion nationwide, not your personal local increase. |
| Number of GS locality pay areas | Dozens of separate areas including Rest of U.S. | Your actual percentage depends on official OPM locality tables for your duty station. |
Because locality rates vary significantly, employees in high-cost areas can have very different total adjusted salaries even if their underlying GS base pay is identical. The next table shows sample 2024 locality percentages published in official pay tables.
| 2024 Locality Area | Sample Locality Percentage | Relative Position |
|---|---|---|
| Rest of U.S. | 16.82% | Lower end of GS locality adjustments |
| Washington-Baltimore-Arlington | 33.26% | Major federal hub with substantially higher locality pay |
| New York-Newark | 37.24% | Higher adjustment reflecting local labor market conditions |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach | 35.84% | Large metro area with above-average locality rates |
| San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland | 45.41% | Among the highest locality rates in the GS system |
Why two employees can get different raises
Suppose two employees each have a current annual base salary of $80,000. One is in Rest of U.S. and the other is in San Francisco. If both get the same across-the-board increase, their new base pay rises by the same dollar amount. But if the locality percentages in their areas move differently, the locality-only piece of their annual raise will differ. Also, because locality is applied to base pay, employees with higher base salaries usually see larger dollar increases from the same percentage change.
This is why federal workers should calculate their own numbers rather than rely on averages. A 0.5% average locality increase across the government does not mean every employee receives exactly a 0.5% locality change. Some areas may rise more, some less, and the dollar result depends on your base salary.
Common mistakes when estimating the locality portion
- Using total salary instead of base salary as the starting point. Locality is applied to base pay, not to salary that already includes locality.
- Ignoring the order of operations. The updated base rate should be calculated first, then the new locality rate should be applied.
- Confusing average raise headlines with area-specific numbers. Your locality raise may not match the average stated in news coverage.
- Failing to convert percentages correctly. Entering 16.82 as 0.1682 in a calculator designed for whole percentages will produce the wrong result.
- Not accounting for pay period planning. A modest annual increase can look smaller or larger depending on whether you review it annually, biweekly, or monthly.
How the calculator on this page works
This calculator asks for five key items: your current base salary, current locality percentage, new locality percentage, across-the-board raise percentage, and number of pay periods. It then computes:
- Current total annual salary
- New base salary after the across-the-board raise
- Salary if only the across-the-board raise applied and locality stayed unchanged
- New total annual salary after both the general and locality updates
- Locality-only annual increase
- Estimated locality-only increase per paycheck
The included chart visualizes the comparison so you can instantly see how much of the raise comes from general schedule growth versus the locality change. This is helpful for employees preparing a new year budget, comparing transfer options, or estimating the effect of published salary tables.
Where to verify your numbers
Always confirm your percentage inputs using official government sources. The most reliable references include the Office of Personnel Management salary tables and locality pay pages, as well as congressional or executive materials explaining annual pay adjustments. Good starting points include:
- OPM Salaries and Wages
- OPM 2024 General Schedule and locality tables
- Congressional Research Service report on federal pay adjustment mechanics
Practical uses for this calculation
Understanding the locality part of your federal pay raise is useful beyond curiosity. It can help with retirement planning because higher salary affects your deductions and future high-three calculations. It can support relocation analysis when you compare salaries across duty stations. It can also improve your tax withholding estimates, transit or childcare contribution planning, and annual savings targets.
For managers and HR specialists, separating the locality-only component can help explain payroll changes more clearly to employees. For applicants considering multiple federal positions, understanding locality mechanics makes job comparisons more realistic. A job in a higher locality area may appear more attractive on paper, but the cost of living and other location factors should be weighed alongside salary.
Bottom line
To calculate locality part of federal pay raise, focus on the change in locality percentage applied to the newly increased base salary. That gives you the cleanest measure of how much of your raise comes from locality alone. Use official OPM tables, avoid mixing base and total salary, and remember that national averages are only summaries. Your actual raise is always personal to your grade, step, base pay, and locality area.
If you want a fast estimate, use the calculator above. It is built to show both the total pay impact and the locality-only share, helping you understand exactly where your federal raise comes from.