Annual Premium Pay for Standby Work:  Premium pay on an annual basis can be approved for certain positions under the Project where employees have to serve extra-long tours of duty in a "standby" status, such as NIST firefighters.  Premium pay on a annual basis substitutes for the extra pay that would otherwise be earned by night work, regular overtime, holiday or Sunday work.

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Environmental Differential:  Prevailing rate system employees may receive pay in addition to their basic pay for periods of exposure to various hazards, physical hardships, and unusual working conditions.  Environmental differentials may be paid for hours of actual exposure or for entire shifts.

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Grade, Band, and Pay Retention:  Employees (except those on time-limited appointments), who are involuntarily changed to a lower level position through no fault of their own, generally are entitled to retain their grades or their career paths and bands for two years.  When this two-year period ends and the positions are reduced in grade or band, these employees are entitled to the lowest scheduled rate of pay in the lower grade or band which meets or exceeds their current rate of pay.  If the current rate of pay is higher than any scheduled rate in the lower grade or band, the employees retain their current pay rate or 150 percent of the maximum rate of the new grade or band, whichever is less.  While employees receive retained pay, they are entitled to 50 percent of any increase in the maximum rate of the newly assigned grade or band.

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Hazardous Duty Pay:  Project employees may receive as much as an additional 25 percent of the basic rate of pay for periods of time when they are exposed to serious physical hardships or hazards that are not regularly encountered on the job.  This type of pay is not authorized when hazards and hardships which are a regular part of the job have been considered in the classification of the job.

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Holiday Pay:  If you have to work on a holiday, you will receive double the usual hour pay for up to eight hours, unless you are on an approved compressed work schedule which includes more than eight scheduled work hours on the holiday.  Otherwise, for time worked over eight hours, you will be paid at the regular overtime rate of time and a half.  Click here for a listing of paid Federal holidays.

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Limit on Premium Pay:  In any biweekly pay period, a Project employee may not receive premium pay which would result in a total compensation equivalent to the highest rate for a GS-15.  This restriction does not apply to employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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Night Pay:  If you work at night as a part of a regular tour of duty (as opposed to occasional overtime work at night), you will earn a night differential.  Project employees receive an additional 10 percent of basic pay for any hours worked between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.   A wage system employee earns seven and a half percent additional pay for the entire shift, if more than half of the shift (e.g., five out of the eight hours) falls between 3 p.m. and midnight.  When more than half of the shift falls between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., the night differential is 10 percent of basic pay.

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Overtime Pay:  There is extra pay for overtime work scheduled and approved in advance.  Unless you are working under an alternative work schedule, you earn overtime pay when you work more than eight hours in a day or more than 40 hours in a week, but only if the work is officially ordered or approved, or if the overtime pay is otherwise required by law, e.g., the employee is covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Compensation for overtime worked is at a rate of one and a half times the hourly rate of pay for individuals covered by the FLSA.  Employees who are exempt from the FLSA receive compensatory time off in place of paid overtime unless the supervisor officially authorizes payment for overtime worked.  Employees whose hourly rate of basic pay exceeds the minimum overtime rate of pay for a GS-10 employee will be paid their basic rate of pay as payment for overtime worked.  (This generally occurs with GS-12, step 6, and higher.)

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Sunday Pay:  Occasional work on Sunday outside the normal tour of duty is considered overtime work.  However, if you are a full-time employee and Sunday is part of your regularly scheduled workweek, you are paid at your rate of basic pay plus a Sunday premium of 25 percent of your basic rate for each hour of Sunday work which is not overtime.

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Information about  pay while in travel status can be found in the Department of Commerce Premium Pay Manual.  Click here to view this information.

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