S. 2473 — Federal Firefighters Families First Act

This section cites the Act as the "Federal Firefighters Families First Act" and states its purposes: (1) improving pay equality between federal firefighters, other federal employees, and municipal and other public sector firefighters; (2) enhancing recruitment and retention of firefighters to maintain the highest quality of federal fire service; (3) including the pay of all regularly recurring scheduled hours during the firefighter workweek when computing retirement benefits; and (4) establishing the regular workweek for federal firefighters.

This section modifies federal firefighter pay computations under 5 U.S.C. §5545b by changing the divisor for deriving the basic hourly rate from 2756 to 2087 (1) in subsection (b)(1)(A) for firefighters on regular 24-hour shifts rather than a basic 40-hour workweek and (2) in subsection (c)(1)(B) for hours outside the basic 40-hour workweek. (The 2756-hour divisor previously reflected firefighters' annual hours based on 106-hour biweekly tours of duty, or 53 hours weekly; the 2087-hour divisor aligns with standard federal employees' annual work hours. Thus, this increases firefighters' hourly rates for overtime, daily/weekly/biweekly pay, and basic pay inclusions for retirement, hazard pay differential, and life insurance.)

This section adds subsection (e) to 5 U.S.C. §5545b to require that, for firefighters subject to subsection (b) (i.e., those classified in the GS-081 firefighter occupation whose regular tours of duty average at least 106 hours biweekly and generally consist of 24-hour shifts rather than a basic 40-hour workweek), the average pay used for Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) annuity computations include—in addition to amounts determined under subsection (b)—an amount equal to one-half the basic hourly rate (derived by dividing the annual rate by 2756) multiplied by overtime hours included in the regular tour of duty. (As background, average pay generally is based on the highest three consecutive years of basic pay under CSRS or the highest five under FERS; this change effectively increases creditable basic pay for annuity purposes by accounting for half of certain overtime.) It makes conforming amendments to the average pay definitions in 5 U.S.C. §§8331(4) and 8401(3).

This section directs the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, not later than one year after the date of enactment, to prescribe regulations establishing the maximum regularly reoccurring hours comprising a workweek for firefighters covered by this section (i.e., federal General Schedule employees classified under the GS-081 firefighter standard averaging at least 106 hours biweekly), not to exceed an average of 60 hours per week.

This section applies the amendments made by the Act to any annuity entitlement based on a separation from service occurring more than 60 days after the date of enactment.