By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com January 4, 2008

President Bush issued an executive order on Friday implementing the average 3.5

percent civilian pay raise for 2008 that was included in the omnibus spending bill he signed late last year.

The executive order was necessary to specify how the overall raise should be divided between base and locality pay. The president accepted the recommendation of the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Labor and the Office of Management and Budget in distributing 2.5 percent of the increase through base pay, and 1 percent through locality pay.

Updated pay tables for 2008 are available here. OPM also planned to post them on its Web site late Friday.

The bill and executive order override the plan Bush issued in late November that would have limited the 2008 pay raise to 3 percent, split between a 2.5 percent base increase and a 0.5 percent increase in locality pay.

For General Schedule employees, base pay will range from $17,046 in Grade 1, Step 1, to $124,010 for employees in Grade 15, Step 12. For members of the Senior Executive Service, pay will range from $ $114,468 to $172,200.

Employees in the greater Washington, D.C. area will receive the highest total pay adjustment -- 4.49 percent.