Following on President Obama’s executive order on implementing the two-year pay freeze for federal civilian employees, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued comprehensive guidance on the pay freeze.  OPM expects the pay freeze to affect about 2 million federal employees.  The freeze policy excludes Military personnel and employees of the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission.  Attachment 3 of the memo specifies employees covered by the pay freeze as well as those payments that are not covered.  Essentially, the pay freeze covers all General Schedule (GS), prevailing rate, Foreign Service, Executive Schedule (ES), Senior Executive Service (SES), and senior-level and scientific and professional employees (SL & ST).  Guidance regarding collective bargaining agreements states that the freeze policy does not apply to any increase required by a collective bargaining agreement “that has already been executed and is in effect as of the date of the Presidential memorandum.”  As has been emphasized by OPM before, the pay freeze does not apply to promotion increases, within-grade step increases, performance awards and bonuses, recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives, and premium pay, such as overtime pay.  You can find additional information on the pay freeze in Attachment 4 (Frequently Asked Questions) of the memorandum.