Federal employees can breathe a sigh of relief now that President Obama has made next year’s 1.3 percent pay raise official, with a Dec. 18 executive order. What will the raise mean for your paycheck? The answer depends on where you live. For the first time since 2010, the raise will be split between a 1 percent across-the-board hike and a locality increase that hovers around 0.3 percent but will be bigger for employees in expensive regions such as California’s Bay Area and Washington, D.C.
