Recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives (3Rs) are compensation flexibilities available to help Federal agencies recruit and retain a world-class workforce. The 3Rs are administered under 5 U.S.C. 5753 and 5754 and 5 CFR part 575, subparts A, B, and C.
Related Information
- Human Resources Flexibilities
Compensation Policy Memoranda
- CPM-2018-04 New Recruitment, Relocation, and Retention Incentive Waiver Request Templates and Updated Calculation Fact Sheets
- CPM 2017-08 Release of OPM’s Course: Pay and Leave Flexibilities for Recruitment and Retention
- CPM 2016-17 Compensation Guidance for Recruiting and Retaining Cybersecurity Professionals
Reports to Congress
Section 101(c) of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-411, October 30, 2004) required the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to submit an annual report to specified committees of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives on agencies' use of the recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive authorities in 5 U.S.C. 5753 and 5754 during calendar years 2005-2009. The report provide data on and describe each agency's use of the incentives during the calendar year.
Calendar Year 2009
- Front Cover
- 2009 3Rs Report
- Attachment 1 - Reporting Agencies List
- Attachment 2 - Agency Data Part 1
- Attachment 2 - Agency Data Part 2
- Attachment 3 - Payplan Definitions
- Appendix
- Back Cover
Previous Calendar Years
- Calendar Year 2008
- Calendar Year 2007
- Calendar Year 2006
- Calendar Year 2005
Retention Incentives
- Likely to leave for a different Federal position
- Likely to leave the Federal service
Group Retention Incentives
- Likely to leave for a different Federal position
- Likely to leave the Federal service
Recruitment & Relocation
- Recruitment Incentives
- Relocation Incentives
Recruitment, Relocation & Retention Incentives
- Recruitment and Relocation Incentive Payment and Termination Calculations
- Calculating Maximum Recruitment and Relocation Incentives for Service Periods of Various Lengths
- Retention Incentive Payment and Termination Calculations
- Oversight and Accountability
Waiver Request Templates
- Recruitment Incentive Waiver Template
- Relocation Incentive Waiver Template
- Retention Incentive Waiver Template
Recruitment, Relocation, and Retention Incentives: Coverage of Non-General Schedule Employees Under Single-Agency Pay Systems
Upon the request of the head of an executive agency, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may approve coverage under the recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive authorities of one or more categories of non-General Schedule employees in a single agency. (See 5 U.S.C. 5753(a)(1)(B) and 5754(a)(1)(B) and OPM regulations at 5 CFR 575.103(a)(7), 575.203(a)(7), and 575.303(a)(7).)
Agencies with one or more categories of non-General Schedule employees who are not specifically covered by the 3Rs regulations or an OPM approval may not provide 3Rs to these employees unless the agency has a separate statutory authority to do so. The statute must provide authority for the agency to grant payments similar to the 3Rs or additional compensation. A statute that only provides an agency with the authority to fix rates of basic pay for a category of employees would generally not be interpreted as providing authority to pay 3Rs payments because 3Rs are not considered rates of basic pay.
The following list shows the categories of employees OPM has approved to be covered by the 3Rs under 5 U.S.C. 5753 and 5754. The original approval date is in brackets after each category of employees.
Agriculture
AD (administratively determined) employees paid under 7 U.S.C. 426a, b, and c and appointed under 5 CFR 213.3113(a)(1) [04/27/1995]
Commerce
NOAA marine wage employees [10/23/1992]
AD and GG employees (Census Bureau) [05/05/1998]
Commissioners at the United States Patent and Trademark Office whose pay is administratively determined under 35 U.S.C. 3(b)(2)(B) [07/02/2020]
Corporation for National Service
AD employees paid under 42 U.S.C. 12653h(c)(3) [09/15/1993]
Employees under Corporation for National Service alternative personnel system authorized by the National Community Service Trust Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-82) [12/01/1995]
Defense
Employees appointed under enabling legislation for USNA, Naval War College, Naval Postgraduate School, Army War College, Air Force Institute of Technology, and Air University [12/31/1991]
Navy marine wage employees [06/25/1992]
Faculty and staff of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) [10/19/1992]
Employees of section 6 schools [01/15/1993]
Employees under the Department of the Navy's Space and Warfare Command and Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division alternative personnel system [05/30/2001]
Professional educators in the Department of Defense Education Activity paid under 20 U.S.C. chapter 29 [12/04/2001]
Employees of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) Faculty Personnel System covered by 10 U.S.C. 1595 [02/18/2005]
Employees of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) covered by 10 U.S.C. 1595 [06/07/2005]
Employees appointed under 5 U.S.C. 3161(b) in the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction [01/18/2006]
Employees of the Department of Defense National Defense University (including the Africa Center for Security Studies, the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, and the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies) and the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies whose pay is administratively determined under 10 U.S.C. 1595 [04/10/2006]
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency employees whose pay is administratively determined under 10 U.S.C. 1601 [02/23/2007]
Employees appointed under 5 U.S.C. 3161(b) in the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction [03/29/2010]
Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission employees appointed under 5 U.S.C. 3161(b) whose pay is administratively determined [09/06/13]
Employees hired by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Defense under 5 U.S.C. 3161 and 5 U.S.C. 9902(g) in support of its role as the Lead Inspector General for designated overseas contingency operations required by Section 8L of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. § 8L) [01/11/16]
AD positions at the United States Air Force Academy paid under 10 U.S.C. 9338 and AD positions at the Joint Special Operations University paid under 10 U.S.C. 1595 and Public Law 115-232 [09/15/21]
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Professional and technical personnel paid under Section 161d of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (as amended by Public Law 101-510) [01/02/2008]
Education
Senior managers and technical and scientific employees in the Office of Student Financial Assistance Programs appointed and paid under the Higher Education Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-44) [09/30/1999]
AD employees paid under 20 U.S.C. 1067j(a), 1137, 1138b, 1417, 9517, 9578, and 9621 [01/27/2020]
Election Assistance Commission
Employees paid in accordance with section 204(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 [10/08/2004]
Energy
Power system dispatchers [01/15/1993]
Wage board employees of the (1) Bonneville Power Administration whose pay is negotiated under the Bonneville Project Act of 1937 (16 U.S.C. 8321); (2) Southwestern Power Administration whose pay is negotiated under the Department of Interior secretarial Order No. 19865, August 31, 1943; and (3) Western Area Power Administration whose pay is negotiated under section 9(b) of Public Law 92-392 and section 704 of Public Law 95-454 [01/13/2000]
Scientific, engineering, technical, and professional employees paid under section 621(d) of the Department of Energy Organization Act (pay plan EJ), section 3161 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995 (Public Law 103-337) (pay plan EK), and section 3241 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal year 2000 (Public Law 106-65) (pay plan EN) [05/22/2001]
Employees in the ER and ET pay plans established for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) [05/22/2012]
Exceptionally well qualified individuals in the EQ pay plan appointed under section 313 of division D of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (Public Law 113-76), to scientific, engineering, or other critical technical positions. [06/25/2014]
Individuals in the TH pay plan appointed under 42 U.S.C. 16298c(a)(1) to positions at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). [02/11/2022]
Individuals in the PS pay plan appointed under section 10726 of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-167, August 9, 2022). [4/19/23]
Environmental Protection Agency
Employees appointed to a position under the administratively determined (AD) pay authority established by the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments (Public Law 95-190, November 16, 1977) [08/21/2002]
Health and Human Services
Employees appointed to the Senior Biomedical Research Service under 42 U.S.C. 237 [04/20/1999]
Interior
Prevailing rate employees whose pay is negotiated under section 9(b) of the Government Employees Prevailing Rate Systems Act, Public Law 92-392, and section 704 of the Civil Service Reform Act, Public Law 95-454 [05/04/2001]
International Broadcasting Bureau
Non-U.S. citizen employees appointed under 22 U.S.C. 1474(1) and the Smith-Mundt Act (Public Law 80-402). Employees are excepted service paid under chapter 18 of title 22, United States Code (Public Law 101-249, February 16, 1990) [03/24/2003]
Justice
U.S Attorneys, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Trustees, and Assistant U.S. Trustees [08/19/1991]
Immigration judges paid under section 371(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 [12/26/1996]
Millennium Challenge Corporation
Employees who are paid in accordance with section 617(d) of the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-199, Division D), and who are not among the 30 for which pay is administratively determined under section 617(c) of the Act [03/24/2004]
Morris K. Udall Foundation
AD employees paid under 20 U.S.C. 5608(a)(1) [01/15/2009]
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
AD employees paid under 42 U.S.C. 2473(c) [09/18/1991]
National Science Foundation
Employees appointed under 42 U.S.C. 1864a and 1873(a) [10/22/1991]
Office of Personnel Management
Experts and consultants appointed under 5 U.S.C. 3109 whose pay is determined in accordance with 5 CFR part 304. [2/18/2014]
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
AD employees paid under 22 U.S.C. 2193(d) [08/07/1991]
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
AD employees paid under 42 U.S.C. 2000ee(j)(1) [10/20/2022]
State
Employees appointed under the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and U.N. Participation Act of 1945 [09/03/1991]
Treasury
National Taxpayer Advocate appointed and compensated under 7803(c)(1)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by section 1102(a) of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 [08/08/1998]
Employees appointed and compensated under the streamlined critical pay authority at 5 U.S.C. 9503, as established by section 1201(a) of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 [08/08/1998]
Police officers in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) and the U.S. Mint paid under 5 U.S.C. 5378 [10/19/2000]
BEP prevailing rate system employees paid under 5 U.S.C. 5349 [04/20/2020]
USAID
Employees appointed under the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and section 625(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 [07/31/1992]
Veterans Affairs
Part-time and temporary positions appointed under 38 U.S.C. 7405 and listed in 38 U.S.C. 7401(1) (i.e., part-time and temporary physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, nurses, physician assistants, and expanded-function dental auxiliaries) [01/19/2001]
Part-time and temporary hybrid positions appointed under 38 U.S.C. 7405 and listed in 38 U.S.C. 7405(a)(1)(B) (i.e., part-time and temporary certified or registered respiratory therapists, licensed physical therapists, licensed practical/vocational nurses, pharmacists, and occupational therapists) [01/19/2001]
Executive clinical positions appointed under 38 U.S.C. 7306 [01/19/2001]
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Extensions of Authority
View the categories ofnon-General Schedule employees in a single agency approved by OPMfor 3Rs coverage.
Law and Regulations
- 5 U.S.C. 5753 and 5754
- 5 CFR part 575, subparts A, B, and C
Questions and Answers
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