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REPORT TO CONGRESS

SALINAS-MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA, FEDERAL WAGE SYSTEM WAGE AREA

Blue-collar Federal employees in the Salinas-Monterey wage area have been paid rates that prevail in Monterey County for decades. For many years, Fort Ord conducted local wage surveys in the wage area. Upon Fort Ord's closure in the early 1990s, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey assumed responsibility for conducting local wage surveys in the wage area.

There are now about 420 FWS employees in the Salinas-Monterey wage area. About half of these employees work in the northern part of Monterey County, and about half work in the southern part of Monterey County. The Naval Postgraduate School, Fort Hunter Liggett, and Camp Roberts are the main FWS employers in the wage area.

• A survey area includes the counties, townships, and cities where the lead agency in the wage area collects and analyzes private sector wage data to produce a wage schedule for the wage area. The survey area for the Salinas-Monterey wage area is Monterey County. The rates of pay on the Salinas-Monterey wage schedule are determined based on prevailing private sector pay rates in Monterey County.
• An area of application includes the survey area and nearby counties, townships, and cities where the wage schedule also applies. The area of application for the Salinas-Monterey wage area is Monterey and San Benito Counties.

The map on the following page shows the FWS wage areas in central California. The darker shaded areas are survey areas, and the lighter shaded areas are areas of application to the corresponding survey areas.

There are five FWS wage areas in central California. FWS wage areas are not defined on a regional basis, but on a local basis, because FWS employees must, by law, receive local prevailing rates. As in other parts of the country, OPM defines FWS wage areas in central California where concentrations of FWS employment coincide with concentrations of private sector employment. Normally, a major military installation or Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center serves as the nucleus of an FWS wage area. The standards OPM uses for establishing FWS wage areas and the procedures for conducting FWS wage surveys to determine local prevailing rates are based on the recommendations of FPRAC. OPM has never changed the standards and procedures for determining FWS pay rates without first seeking the advice of FPRAC.

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