§ 532.285 - Special wage schedules for supervisors of negotiated rate Bureau of Reclamation employees.

§ 532.285 Special wage schedules for supervisors of negotiated rate Bureau of Reclamation employees.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 89 FR 4541, Jan. 24, 2024.

(a) The Department of the Interior shall establish and issue special wage schedules for wage supervisors of negotiated rate wage employees in the Bureau of Reclamation. These schedules shall be based on annual special wage surveys conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation in each special wage area. Survey jobs representing Bureau of Reclamation positions at up to four levels will be matched to private industry jobs in each special wage area. Special schedule rates for each position will be based on prevailing rates for that particular job in private industry.

(b) Each supervisory job shall be described at one of four levels corresponding to the four supervisory situations described in Factor I and four levels of Subfactor IIIA of the FWS Job Grading Standard for Supervisors. They shall be titled in accordance with regular FWS practices, with the added designation of level I, II, III, or IV. The special survey and wage schedule for a given special wage area includes only those occupations and levels having employees in that area. For each position on the special schedule, there shall be three step rates. Step 2 is the prevailing rate as determined by the survey; step 1 is 96 percent of the prevailing rate; and step 3 is 104 percent of the prevailing rate.

(c) For each special wage area, the Bureau of Reclamation shall designate and appoint a special wage survey committee, including a chairperson and two other members (at least one of whom shall be a supervisor paid from the special wage schedule), and one or more two-person data collection teams (each of which shall include at least one supervisor paid from the special wage schedule). The local wage survey committee shall determine the prevailing rate for each survey job as a weighted average. Survey specifications are as follows for all surveys:

(1) Based on Bureau of Reclamation activities and types of supervisory positions in the special wage area, the Bureau of Reclamation must survey private industry companies, with no minimum employment size requirement for establishments, in the following North American Industry Classification System code subsectors:

2017 2022 NAICS codes	2017 2022 NAICS industry titles
211	Oil and gas extraction.
212	Mining (except oil and gas).
213	Support activities for mining.
221	Utilities.
333	Machinery manufacturing.
334	Computer and electronic product manufacturing.
335	Electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing.
484	Truck transportation.
492	Couriers and messengers.
493	Warehousing and storage.
515	Broadcasting (except Internet)516	Broadcasting and content providers.
517	Telecommunications.
562	Waste management and remediation services.
811	Repair and maintenance.

(2) Each local wage survey committee shall compile lists of all companies in the survey area known to have potential job matches. For the first survey, all companies on the list will be surveyed. Subsequently, companies shall be removed from the survey list if they prove not to have job matches, and new companies will be added if they are expected to have job matches. Survey data will be shared with other local wage survey committees when the data from any one company is applicable to more than one special wage area.

(3) For each area, survey job descriptions shall be tailored to correspond to the position of each covered supervisor in that area. They will be described at one of four levels (I, II, III, or IV) corresponding to the definitions of the four supervisory situations described in Factor I and four levels of Subfactor IIIA of the FWS Job Grading Standard for Supervisors. A description of the craft, trade, or labor work supervised will be included in each supervisory survey job description.

(d) Special wage area boundaries shall be identical to the survey areas covered by the special wage surveys. The areas of application in which the special schedules will be paid are generally smaller than the survey areas, reflecting actual Bureau of Reclamation worksites and the often scattered location of surveyable private sector jobs. Special wage schedules shall be established in the following areas:

The Great Plains Region

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Montana: All counties except Lincoln, Sanders,Lake, Flathead, Mineral, Missoula, Powell, Granite, and Ravalli

Wyoming: All counties except Lincoln, Teton, sublette, Uinta, and Sweetwater

Colorado: All counties except Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Mesa, Delta, Montrose, San Miguel, Ouray, Delores, San Juan, Montezuma, La Plata, and Archuleta

North Dakota: All counties

South Dakota: All counties

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Montana: Broadwater, Jefferson,Lewis and Clark, Yellowstone, and Bighorn Counties

Wyoming: All counties except Lincoln, Teton, Sublette, Uinta, and Sweetwater

Colorado: Boulder, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Eagle, Fremont, Gilpin, Grand, Lake, Larimer, Park, Pitkin, Pueblo, and Summitt

Beginning month of survey: August

The Mid-Pacific Region

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

California: Shasta, Sacramento, Butte, San Francisco, Merced, Stanislaus

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

California: Shasta, Sacramento, Fresno, Alameda, Tehoma, Tuolumne, Merced

Beginning month of survey: February

Green Springs Power Field Station

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Oregon: Jackson

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Oregon: Jackson

Beginning month of survey: April

Pacific NW. Region Drill Crew

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Montana: Flathead, Missoula

Oregon: Lane, Bend, Medford, Umatilla, Multnomah

Utah: Salt Lake

Idaho: Ada, Canyon, Adams

Washington: Spokane, Grant, Lincoln, Okanogan

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Oregon: Deschutes, Jackson, Umatilla

Montana: Missoula

Idaho: Ada

Washington: Grant, Lincoln, Douglas, Okanogan, Yakima

Beginning month of survey: April

Snake River Area Office (Central Snake/Minidoka)

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Idaho: Ada, Caribou, Bingham, Bannock

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Idaho: Gem, Elmore, Bonneville, Minidoka, Boise, Valley, Power

Beginning month of survey: April

Hungry Horse Project Office

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Montana: Flathead, Missoula, Cascade, Sanders, Lake

Idaho: Bonner

Washington: Pend Oreille

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Montana: Flathead

Beginning month of survey: March

Grand Coulee Power Office (Grand Coulee Project Office)

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Oregon: Multnomah

Washington: Spokane, King

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Washington: Grant, Douglas, Lincoln, Okanogan

Beginning month of survey: April

Upper Columbia Area Office (Yakima)

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Washington: King, Yakima

Oregon: Multnomah

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Washington: Yakima

Oregon: Umatilla

Beginning Month of Survey: September

Colorado River Storage Project Area

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Arizona: Apache, Coconino, Navajo

Colorado: Moffat, Montrose, Routt, Gunnison, Rio Blanco, Mesa, Garfield, Eagle, Delta, Pitkin, San Miguel, Delores, Montezuma, La Plata, San Juan, Ouray, Archuleta, Hindale, Mineral

Wyoming: Unita, Sweetwater, Carbon, Albany, Laramie, Goshen, Platte, Niobrara, Converse, Natrona, Fremont, Sublette, Lincoln

Utah: Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Piute, Rich, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Wayne, Weber

Special Survey Area of Application (Counties)

Arizona: Coconino

Colorado: Montrose, Gunnison, Mesa

Wyoming: Lincoln

Utah: Daggett

Beginning month of survey: March

Elephant Butte Area

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

New Mexico: Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Donña Ana, Otero, Eddy, Lea, Roosevelt, Chaves, Lincoln, Sierra, Socorro, Catron, Cibola, Valencia, Bernalillo, Torrance, Guadalupe, De Baca, Curry, Quay

Texas: El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presido, Brewster, Pecos, Reeves, Loving, Ward, Winkler

Arizona: Apache, Greenlee, Graham, Cochise

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

New Mexico: Sierra

Beginning month of survey: June

Lower Colorado Dams Area

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Nevada: Clark

California: Los Angeles

Arizona: Maricopa

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Nevada: Clark

California: San Bernardino

Arizona: Mohave

Beginning month of survey: August

Yuma Projects Area

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

California: San Diego

Arizona: Maricopa, Yuma

Note:

Bureau of Reclamation may add other survey counties for dredge operator supervisors because of the uniqueness of the occupation and difficulty in finding job matches.)

Special Wage Area of Application (Counties)

Arizona: Yuma

Beginning month of survey: November (Maintenance) and April (Dredging)

Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO, Area

Special Wage Survey Area (Counties)

Colorado: Jefferson, Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Larimer

Special Wage Survey Area of Application (Counties)

Colorado: Jefferson

Beginning month of survey: February

(e) These special schedule positions will be identified by pay plan code XE, grade 00, and the Federal Wage System occupational codes will be used. New employees shall be hired at step 1 of the position. With satisfactory or higher performance, advancement between steps shall be automatic after 52 weeks of service.

(f)

(1) In the first year of implementation, all special areas will have full-scale surveys.

(2) Current employees shall be placed in step 2 of the new special schedule, or, if their current rate of pay exceeds the rate for step 2, they shall be placed in step 3. Pay retention shall apply to any employee whose rate of basic pay would otherwise be reduced as a result of placement in these new special wage schedules.

(3) The waiting period for within-grade increases shall begin on the employee's first day under the new special schedule.

[60 FR 5310, Jan. 27, 1995, as amended at 69 FR 7105, Feb. 13, 2004; 71 FR 35375, June 20, 2006; 73 FR 45853, Aug. 7, 2008; 78 FR 58154, Sept. 23, 2013; 84 FR 36814, July 30, 2019; 89 FR 4541, Jan. 24, 2024]