Printing - FECA-PT2 - National Association of Letter Carriers

The salary for these employees may vary over the life of the claim due to reevaluations of the
employee's route. These changes will only affect the pay rate for compensation purposes on the
date disability begins, or if the employee is performing full duty at the time of a recurrence that
qualifies for a recurrent pay rate. If the pay rate on the date disability begins or at the time of a
qualifying recurrence is lower than the date of injury pay rate, then the date of injury pay rate is
used to compute compensation.
If a change occurs during a period of disability, compensation continues to be based on the original
pay rate. For rural carrier leave replacements, who are hired on a part-time basis to substitute for
rural carriers and may work from 1-6 days in a given week, the pay rate should be established in
accordance with Section 5 U.S.C. 8114(d).
h. Performance-Based Alternative Pay Systems (Pay Banding).
Some Federal agencies have adopted the use of performance-based alternative pay systems.
There are numerous performance-based pay systems, but they all link individual base pay and
bonuses to performance. Most options do not provide for any automatic pay increases. These pay
systems give managers more flexibility in setting the pay for new employees as well as current
employees.
In performance-based pay systems (also known as pay banding), agencies may collapse the 15
General Schedule grades into a smaller number of pay ranges. For example, the GS grades could
be collapsed into four bands which cover GS-1 through 5, GS-6 through 11, GS-12 through 13, and
GS-14 through 15. Once the bands are defined, the agency may hire an employee at any pay
amount within a band and determine how employees move within and across bands.
See FECA PM 2-0901-15 for a discussion of calculating a loss of wage-earning capacity in cases
where a specific grade and step were not assigned to the date of injury position.
2-0900 Exhibit 1
DETERMINING EFFECTIVE PAY RATE DATE FOR SCHEDULE AWARDS
With an approved period of wage loss, the Schedule Award should
be based on the most recent established pay rate in effect with
the pay effective date of DMI.
For Traumatic Injury Claims –
With prior disability:
Use Pay Rate Date = DOI, DDB, or DOR (whichever is greatest)
SA Start Date = DMI
CPI Start Date = DOI, DDB, or DOR (pay rate effective date)
When there has been no prior disability:
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