Title 22 — Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-73not60
§3974 Border Equalization Pay Adjustment
Title 22 › Chapter 52— FOREIGN SERVICE › Subchapter IV— COMPENSATION › § 3974
Summary
An employee who commutes from the U.S. to a duty station in Canada or Mexico must get border equalization pay equal to the comparability payment in section 5304 of title 5 for the nearest U.S. locality. "Employee" means someone in section 2105 employed by the Department of State, USAID, or the International Joint Commission (treaty Jan. 11, 1909), excluding Service members in section 3903. The pay counts as basic pay and agency heads may make rules to apply it.
Full Legal Text
Title 22, §3974
Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)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.
(b)For purposes of this section, the term “employee” means a person who—
(1)is an “employee” as defined under section 2105 of title 5; and
(2)is employed by the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, or the International Joint Commission of the United States and Canada (established under Article VII of the treaty signed January 11, 1909) (36 Stat. 2448), except that the term shall not include members of the Service (as specified in section 3903 of this title).
(c)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.
(d)The heads of the agencies referred to in subsection (b)(2) may prescribe regulations to carry out this section.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
22 U.S.C. § 3974
Title 22 — Foreign Relations and Intercourse
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60