§5546a Differential Pay for Certain Employees of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense

Summary

Allows the head of the Federal Aviation Administration or the Secretary of Defense to give extra pay to certain FAA and DOD workers. They can pay an extra 5 percent of basic pay to specific groups: air traffic controllers at least GS‑9 working in centers, terminals, or flight service stations; workers at least GS‑09 or WG‑10 in airway facilities sectors; flight inspection crew members at least GS‑11 in flight inspection offices; flight test pilots at least GS‑12 in regions or centers whose duties are unusually hard and critical to safety; and FAA staff at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City who train people for those jobs and who previously held such jobs. (Administrator = head of FAA; Secretary = Secretary of Defense.) That extra pay is added on top of basic pay and any other premium pay. The Administrator or the Secretary can also pay other bonuses: 1.6 percent of basic pay for controllers who are certified even though certification is not required; 10 percent of hourly basic pay for each hour a controller spends giving on‑the‑job training; and, if a controller or flight service specialist is forced to work through the fourth to sixth hour of an eight‑hour shift without a 30‑minute meal break, a payment equal to 50 percent of one‑half of the hourly basic pay. The Administrator and the Secretary must set the standards and rules to decide who gets these payments.