[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR591.210]

[Page 675]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
 
PART 591--ALLOWANCES AND DIFFERENTIALS--Table of Contents
 
 Subpart B--Cost-of-Living Allowance and Post Differential--Nonforeign 
                                  Areas
 
Sec. 591.210  Payment of allowances and differentials.

    (a) Allowances and differentials under this subpart are payable to 
an employee whose official duty station is in a nonforeign area for 
which an allowance or differential is authorized.
    (b) Payment of an allowance or differential will begin on the 
effective date of the change in the employee's official duty station to 
a duty station within the allowance or differential area or on the 
effective date of the appointment in the case of local recruitment. An 
employee who is detailed for temporary duty in a nonforeign area (i.e., 
the employee's official duty station is outside the nonforeign area) is 
eligible for a differential, but not an allowance, except that payment 
of a differential shall not begin until after 42 consecutive calendar 
days of temporary duty in the differential area. Payment of an allowance 
or differential will cease--
    (1) On separation;
    (2) On the effective date of assignment or transfer to a new 
official duty station outside the allowance or differential area; or
    (3) On the ending date of a detail, in the case of an employee on 
detail to temporary duty in a differential area.
    (c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, 
allowances and differentials shall be calculated and paid as a 
percentage of an employee's hourly rate of basic pay, including a 
retained rate of pay under 5 U.S.C. 3594(c) or 5363, for those hours for 
which the employee receives basic pay, including all periods of paid 
leave, detail, or travel status outside the allowance or differential 
area.
    (2) Payment of a differential during periods of paid leave or travel 
outside the differential area continues for the first 42 consecutive 
calendar days of the absence. Payment of allowances and differentials 
while absent from the post continues only if the employee returns to 
duty status in the area, unless the agency determines that--
    (i) It is in the public interest not to return the employee to the 
duty station; or
    (ii) The employee's failure to return to the duty station was due to 
compelling personal reasons or to circumstances over which the employee 
had no control.
    (d) An employee assigned to an official duty station for which both 
an allowance and a differential are authorized under this subpart and 
eligible for both will receive the full amount of the allowance, plus so 
much of the differential as will not cause the combined total of 
allowance and differential to exceed 25 percent of the hourly rate of 
basic pay.
    (e)(1) An allowance or a differential is not part of an employee's 
rate of basic pay for the purpose of computing entitlements to overtime 
pay, retirement, life insurance, or any other additional pay, allowance, 
or differential under title 5, United States Code.
    (2) An allowance or differential is included in an employee's 
regular rate of pay for computing overtime pay entitlement under the 
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended.
    (f) Payment of an allowance or a differential is not an equivalent 
increase in pay within the meaning of 5 U.S.C. 5335.

[55 FR 1373, Jan. 16, 1990, as amended at 59 FR 66635, Dec. 28, 1994; 60 
FR 46750, Sept. 8, 1995; 62 FR 25425, May 9, 1997; 62 FR 63631, Dec. 2, 
1997; 64 FR 36775, July 8, 1999]