What is a Supervisory Differential?

You may request approval to pay a supervisory differential to a General Schedule employee who has supervisory responsibility for one or more civilian employees not under the General Schedule if:

• In the absence of such a differential, the subordinate civilian employees would be paid more than the supervisor, and 

• The supervisor's rate of basic pay does not exceed the rate of basic pay established for a GS-15 step 10.

Conditions

Because of the potential for frequent changes in a supervisor's eligibility for a differential, OPM encourages deciding officials to authorize the differentials ONLY WHEN THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT PAY DISPARITY between the supervisor's and the subordinate's continuing pay.

The differential is not considered part of basic pay, but will be paid in the same manner and at the same time as the supervisor's basic pay.

A supervisory differential must be reduced or terminated not later than 30 days after:

• The continuing pay (excluding the supervisory differential) of the supervisor exceeds the continuing pay of the highest-paid subordinate, 

• The continuing pay (including the supervisory differential) of the supervisor exceeds that of the highest-paid subordinate by more than three percent, or

• The subordinate leaves his/her position or receives a pay reduction.

See the Justification Criteria in this section for the types of pay comprising "continuing pay."

Justification Criteria

To justify the payment of a supervisory differential, you must follow these 3 steps:

STEP 1.    Calculate the continuing pay of the GS/GM supervisor and that of the supervisor’s highest-paid subordinate not under the General Schedule:

STEP 2.      Compare the continuing pay of the supervisor with that of the subordinate:
 

STEP 3.    If the subordinate’s continuing pay is, in your judgement, significantly higher than the supervisor’s, you may elect to continue the process to obtain approval to pay a supervisory differential to the supervisor.

Process for Paying Supervisory Differentials 

You should follow this process to request to pay such a differential:

Approval Authority

Approval Authority is USDA, Office of Human Resources Management.

Records

In addition to the records requirements on the Records/Reports Charts, Section A, the Human Resources Division must keep records of the following information, about each supervisor who receives a supervisory differential and the supervisor’s highest - paid subordinate not under the General Schedule:

•   Copy of request to OHRM, USDA, and any response(s) received, and

•   Continuing pay at the time approval of the differential was requested.