VA IT workforce to receive Special Salary Rate despite governmentwide uncertainty.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing a new pay model for its IT and cybersecurity employees, regardless of whether a governmentwide effort to increase tech workers’ salaries moves forward. The Special Salary Rate (SSR) is expected to significantly raise the salaries of more than 7,000 VA personnel nationwide. If adopted by all agencies, the SSR would increase the pay for about 100,000 federal IT and cyber employees governmentwide. However, the viability of a new governmentwide pay model for federal IT and cybersecurity employees is uncertain, as agencies brace for possible cuts to discretionary, nondefense spending as part of ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations.