A within-grade-increase (WGI) is an increase in employee's rate of basic pay by advancement from one step of his/her grade to the next after meeting requirement for length of service and satisfactory performance.

An employee must have a current rating of record of  "fully successful" (Level 3) in order to be granted a WGI.

Personnel actions affecting WGIs are generated automatically in the Human Resource office unless the supervisor has identified a performance problem with the employee, in which case it may be postponed or withheld.

The following are the waiting periods required to move from one step to the next for General Schedule and Federal Wage System employees.

Waiting Period for General Schedule (GS) (full-time):

• For advancement to steps 2, 3, and 4 - 52 calendar weeks
• For advancement to steps 5, 6, and 7 - 104 calendar weeks
• For advancement to steps 8, 9, and 10 - 156 calendar weeks

Waiting Period for Federal Wage System (WG/WS) (full-time):

• For advancement to step 2, 26 calendar weeks in step 1
• For advancement to step 3, 78 calendar weeks in step 2
• For advancement to step 4 and 5, 104 calendar weeks in step 3 and 4, respectively.

5 CFR 531

5 CFR 532

Postponing Within-Grade-Increase

The within-grade-increase (WGI) must be postponed when either of the two following conditions exist:

1. The employee's performance is less than satisfactory and he/she has not been given an "Opportunity to Improve." In this situation, you would promptly contact the Human Resource office for guidance.

1. The employee has been reassigned or demoted because of unacceptable performance and is or will be eligible within 60 days for a WGI. The Human Resource office would notify the supervisor of the requirement to postpone.

If either of the above two conditions exist, the supervisor would notify the employee in writing of the postponement, the reason for it, and that he/she has a given period of time  to demonstrate fully successful performance. The employee must be given an opportunity to improve performance and a new or revised performance plan that describes in detail what the employee must do to bring his/her rating to the "fully successful" level.

If the employee's performance remains unacceptable, appropriate corrective action must be taken.

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