Data / Federal rules / 2025-00555
Prevailing Rate Systems; Change in Criteria for Defining Appropriated Fund Federal Wage System Wage Areas
The Personnel Management Office published this final rule in the Federal Register on January 21, 2025. It took effect on October 1, 2025.
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What the agency says
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing a final rule to change the regulatory criteria used to define Federal Wage System (FWS) wage area boundaries and make changes in certain wage areas. The purpose of this change, which will affect around ten percent of the FWS workforce, is to make the FWS wage area criteria more similar to the General Schedule (GS) locality pay area criteria. This change is based on a December 2023 majority recommendation of the Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee (FPRAC), the statutory national-level labor-management committee that advises OPM on the administration of the FWS.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2025-00555
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Final rule
- Agency
- Personnel Management Office
- Published
- January 21, 2025
- Takes effect
- October 1, 2025
- Dates
- Effective date: This rule is effective October 1, 2025.
- Docket
- Docket ID: OPM-2024-0016
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 3206-AO69
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 5 CFR 532
- Topics
- Administrative practice and procedure; Freedom of information; Government employees; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements; Wages
- Significant
- Yes, under Executive Order 12866
- Pages
- 35
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Everything from the Personnel Management Office · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Rules on freedom of information · Rules on government employees · Published in January 2025
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.