Information on pay raises for Civilian Mariners
By the Special Assistant for Mariner Affairs

"What is the holdup with my annual pay raise?"

I would like to clear up a misconception that seems to be prevalent regarding pay raises. Unlike shore-based civil service personnel, we civilian mariners have no shore-side grade structure; we don't have to take a civil service exam; and we don't have to compete government-wide to work aboard ship. In other words, we are not regular, shore-side GS employees. The reason we are treated differently is that we would never be able to crew our ships if we had to compete competitively for each afloat job every time one opened.

So, where do our pay raises come from?

Title Five U.S. Code Section 5348 states, in part, "The pay of officers and crews of vessels excepted from Chapter 51 of this title by Section 5102 c (8) of this title shall be fixed and adjusted from time to time as nearly as is consistent with the public interest in accordance with prevailing rates and practices of the maritime industry..."

Your next question: What in the world does that mean? Well, it means the various maritime unions recognized as our representatives are used to determine our pay.

The unions negotiate with their commercial customers for pay raises. Depending on the success (or lack thereof) of their negotiations, the results are then turned over to MSC. Headquarters reviews the numbers and applies the various laws and regulations that can affect the pay raise -- like pay caps, maximum allowable percent increase etc. Then MSC calculates the rates for each position, places it all in the proper format and sends its recommendation to the Department of Defense for review and approval.

DOD handles base wages directly. For premium rates, the Office of Personnel Management also reviews and approves the rates. DOD and OPM review all the numbers, ensure all the applicable laws and regulations have been properly applied and prepare the budget increase necessary to give MSC the funding to enact the raise. If it all checks out, they send approval to MSC.

Once the approval is received at headquarters, the Military Sealift Fleet Support Command is notified to implement the raise. Generally speaking, about four to six weeks after the numbers are sent to DOD, DOD gets back in touch with MSC. If the date the unions and their commercial customers have agreed to enact the private sector pay raise has passed, retroactive pay covers the period between that date and when MSFSC is authorized to implement the new rates.

As you can see, most of this process is beyond the control of MSC. No one at MSC holds-up, sits-on or otherwise delays pay raises. The turnaround from when the information is received from the unions until it is forwarded outside MSC is pretty short. The nature of the federal government system can just be slow at times. Any time the expenditure of tax dollars is involved -- which is exactly what our pay is -- all the details have to be perfect to satisfy the public trust.