Collapse to view only § 3962. Salaries of Senior Foreign Service members
- § 3961. Salaries of chiefs of mission
- § 3962. Salaries of Senior Foreign Service members
- § 3963. Foreign Service Schedule
- § 3964. Assignments to salary class
- § 3965. Performance pay
- § 3966. Within-class salary increases
- § 3967. Salaries for Foreign Service personnel abroad who perform routine duties
- § 3968. Local compensation plans
- § 3968a. Locally-employed staff wages
- § 3969. Salaries of consular agents
- § 3970. Compensation for imprisoned foreign national employees
- § 3971. Temporary service as principal officer
- § 3972. Special differentials
- § 3973. Death gratuities
- § 3974. Border equalization pay adjustment
- § 3975. Group life insurance supplement applicable to those killed in terrorist attacks
- § 3976. Survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance
The President shall establish a Foreign Service Schedule which shall consist of 9 salary classes and which shall apply to members of the Service who are citizens of the United States and for whom salary rates are not otherwise provided for by this subchapter. The maximum salary rate for the highest class established under this section, which shall be designated class 1, may not exceed the maximum rate of basic pay prescribed for GS–15 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5. Salary rates established under this section shall be adjusted in accordance with section 5303 of title 5.
The Secretary shall determine the amount of performance pay available under subsection (b)(2) each year for distribution among the members of the Senior Foreign Service and shall distribute performance pay to particular individuals on the basis of recommendations by selection boards established under section 4002 of this title.
The President may grant awards of performance pay under subsection (b)(3) on the basis of annual recommendations by the Secretary of State of members of the Senior Foreign Service who are nominated by their agencies as having performed especially meritorious or distinguished service. Such service in the promotion of internationally recognized human rights, including the right to freedom of religion, shall serve as a basis for granting awards under this section. Recommendations by the Secretary of State under this subsection shall be made on the basis of recommendations by special interagency selection boards established by the Secretary of State for the purpose of reviewing and evaluating the nominations of agencies.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of State may provide for recognition of the meritorious or distinguished service of any member of the Foreign Service described in subsection (a) (including any member of the Senior Foreign Service) by means other than an award of performance pay in lieu of making such an award under this section.
The Secretary may grant, on the basis of especially meritorious service, to any member of the Service receiving an increase in salary under subsection (a), an additional salary increase to any higher step in the salary class in which the member is serving.
For the purpose of performing functions abroad, any agency or other Government establishment (including any establishment in the legislative or judicial branch) may administer employment programs for its employees who are foreign nationals, are United States citizens employed in the Service abroad who were hired while residing abroad, or are family members of Government employees assigned abroad, in accordance with the applicable provisions of this chapter.
The Secretary of State may prescribe regulations governing the establishment and administration of local compensation plans under this section by all agencies and other Government establishments.
The prevailing wage rate goal established under subsection (a) shall not apply if compliance with such subsection would be inconsistent with applicable United States law, the law in the locality of employment, or the public interest.
The Secretary of State shall establish the salary rate for each consular agent. Such salary rate shall be established after taking into account the workload of the consular agency and the prevailing wage rates in the locality where the agency is located, except that, in the case of a consular agent who is a citizen of the United States, the salary rate may not be less than the then applicable minimum wage rate specified in section 206(a)(1) of title 29.
The head of any agency or other Government establishment (including any in the legislative or judicial branch) may compensate any current or former foreign national employee, or any foreign national who is or was employed under a personal services contract, who is or has been imprisoned by a foreign government if the Secretary of State (or, in the case of a foreign national employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Director of Central Intelligence) determines that such imprisonment is the result of the employment of the foreign national by the United States. Such compensation may not exceed the amount that the agency head determines approximates the salary and other benefits to which the foreign national would have been entitled had he or she been employed during the period of such imprisonment. Such compensation may be paid under such terms and conditions as the Secretary of State deems appropriate. For purposes of this section, an agency head shall have the same powers with respect to imprisoned foreign nationals who are or were employed by the agency as an agency head has under subchapter VII of chapter 55 of title 5 to the extent that such powers are consistent with this section.
The Secretary of State may prescribe regulations governing payments under this section by all agencies and other Government establishments.
For such time (in excess of such minimum period as the Secretary of State may establish) as any member of the Service is temporarily in charge of a Foreign Service post during the absence or incapacity of the principal officer, that member shall receive, in addition to the basic salary paid to the member and notwithstanding sections 5535 and 5536 of title 5, an amount equal to that portion (which the Secretary of State may determine to be appropriate) of the difference between such salary and the basic salary provided for the principal officer, or, if there is no principal officer, for the former principal officer.
The Secretary may pay special differentials, in addition to compensation otherwise authorized, to Foreign Service officers who are required because of the nature of their assignments to perform additional work on a regular basis in substantial excess of normal requirements.
The Inspector General of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) shall limit the payment of special differentials to USAID Foreign Service criminal investigators to levels at which the aggregate of basic pay and special differential for any pay period would equal, for such criminal investigators, the bi-weekly pay limitations on premium pay regularly placed on other criminal investigators within the Federal law enforcement community. This provision shall be retroactive to January 1, 2013.
Nothing in this chapter, or in subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5 shall preclude the granting of compensatory time off for Foreign Service officers.
The Secretary may provide for payment of a gratuity to the surviving dependents of any Foreign Service employee, who dies as a result of injuries sustained in the performance of duty abroad, in an amount equal to one year’s salary at level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313 of title 5 at the time of death, except that for employees compensated under local compensation plans established under section 3968 of this title the amount shall be equal to the greater of either one year’s salary at the time of death, or one year’s basic salary at the highest step of the highest grade on the local compensation plan from which the employee was being paid at the time of death. Any death gratuity payment made under this section shall be held to have been a gift and shall be in addition to any other benefit payable from any source.
The head of an executive agency shall, pursuant to guidance issued under subsection (c), make a death gratuity payment authorized by this section to the survivors of any employee of that agency or of an individual in a special category serving in an uncompensated capacity for that agency, as identified in guidance issued under subsection (c), who dies as a result of injuries sustained in the performance of duty abroad while subject to the authority of the chief of mission pursuant to section 3927 of this title.
Not later than 60 days after January 17, 2014, the Secretary shall, in consultation with the heads of other relevant executive agencies, issue guidance with criteria for determining eligibility for, and order of payments to, survivors and beneficiaries of any employee or of an individual in a special category serving in an uncompensated capacity for that agency who dies as a result of injuries sustained in the performance of duty while subject to the authority of the chief of mission pursuant to section 3927 of this title.
A death gratuity payment shall be made under this section only if the survivor entitled to payment under subsection (c) is entitled to elect monthly compensation under section 8133 of title 5, because the death resulted from an injury (excluding a disease proximately caused by the employment) sustained in the performance of duty, without regard to whether such survivor elects to waive compensation under such section 8133.
An employee who regularly commutes from the employee’s place of residence in the continental United States to an official duty station in Canada or Mexico shall receive a border equalization pay adjustment equal to the amount of comparability payments under section 5304 of title 5 that the employee would receive if the employee were assigned to an official duty station within the United States locality pay area closest to the employee’s official duty station.
An equalization pay adjustment paid under this section shall be considered to be part of basic pay for the same purposes for which comparability payments are considered to be part of basic pay under section 5304 of title 5.
The heads of the agencies referred to in subsection (b)(2) may prescribe regulations to carry out this section.
Notwithstanding the amounts specified in chapter 87 of title 5, a Foreign Service employee who dies as a result of injuries sustained while on duty abroad because of an act of terrorism, as defined in section 2656f(d) of this title, shall be eligible for a special payment of $400,000, which shall be in addition to any employer provided life insurance policy coverage. In the case of an employee compensated under a local compensation plan established under section 3968 of this title, the amount of such payment shall be determined by regulations implemented by the Secretary of State and shall be no greater than $400,000. The group life insurance supplement employee benefit paid or scheduled to be paid pursuant to this section should not be used to reduce any other payment to which a recipient is otherwise eligible under Federal law.
A payment made under paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with the guidance issued under section 3973(c) of this title.
The head of an executive agency shall provide the additional payment authorized by this section, consistent with the provisions set forth in subsection (a), with respect to any employee of that agency or of an individual in a special category serving in an uncompensated capacity for that agency who dies as a result of injuries sustained while on duty abroad because of an act of terrorism, as defined in section 2656f(d) of this title, while subject to the authority of the chief of mission pursuant to section 3927 of this title.
The Secretary shall, pursuant to guidance issued under section 3973(c) of this title, provide educational assistance to a beneficiary of any United States national Foreign Service employee who dies while on duty abroad as a result of an act of terrorism, as defined in section 2656f(d) of this title, to meet, in whole or in part, the expenses incurred by the beneficiary in pursuing a program of education at an educational institution, including subsistence, tuition, fees, supplies, books, equipment, and other educational costs.
The head of an executive agency shall, pursuant to guidance issued under section 3973(c) of this title provide educational assistance authorized by this section to a beneficiary of any employee of that agency who dies as a result of an act of terrorism or terrorism, as defined in section 2656f(d) of this title, while on duty abroad and subject to the authority of the chief of mission pursuant to section 3927 of this title.
Educational assistance under this section may be made available up to the amounts provided for in section 3532 of title 38, as adjusted by section 3564 of title 38, and for an aggregate period not in excess of 48 months.
For purposes of this section, the terms “program of education” and “educational institution” have the meanings given the terms in section 3501 of title 38.