1. (a) The Department of the Interior shall establish and issue special wage schedules for wage supervisors of negotiated rate wage employees in the Bureau of Reclamation. These schedules shall be based on annual special wage surveys conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation in each special wage area. Survey jobs representing Bureau of Reclamation positions at up to four levels will be matched to private industry jobs in each special wage area. Special schedule rates for each position will be based on prevailing rates for that particular job in private industry.
2. (b) Each supervisory job shall be described at one of four levels corresponding to the four supervisory situations described in Factor I and four levels of Subfactor IIIA of the FWS Job Grading Standard for Supervisors. They shall be titled in accordance with regular FWS practices, with the added designation of level I, II, III, or IV. The special survey and wage schedule for a given special wage area includes only those occupations and levels having employees in that area. For each position on the special schedule, there shall be three step rates. Step 2 is the prevailing rate as determined by the survey; step 1 is 96 percent of the prevailing rate; and step 3 is 104 percent of the prevailing rate.

3. (c) For each special wage area, the Bureau of Reclamation shall designate and appoint a special wage survey committee, including a chairperson and two other members (at least one of whom shall be a supervisor paid from the special wage schedule), and one or more two-person data collection teams (each of which shall include at least one supervisor paid from the special wage schedule). The local wage survey committee shall determine the prevailing rate for each survey job as a weighted average. Survey specifications are as follows for all surveys:

   1. (1) Based on Bureau of Reclamation activities and types of supervisory positions in the special wage area, the Bureau of Reclamation must survey private industry companies, with no minimum employment size requirement for establishments, in the following North American Industry Classification System code subsectors:

      2022 NAICS codes	2022 NAICS industry titles
      211	Oil and gas extraction.
      212	Mining (except oil and gas).
      213	Support activities for mining.
      221	Utilities.
      333	Machinery manufacturing.
      334	Computer and electronic product manufacturing.
      335	Electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing.
      484	Truck transportation.
      492	Couriers and messengers.
      493	Warehousing and storage.
      516	Broadcasting and content providers.
      517	Telecommunications.
      562	Waste management and remediation services.
      811	Repair and maintenance.

   2. (2) Each local wage survey committee shall compile lists of all companies in the survey area known to have potential job matches. For the first survey, all companies on the list will be surveyed. Subsequently, companies shall be removed from the survey list if they prove not to have job matches, and new companies will be added if they are expected to have job matches. Survey data will be shared with other local wage survey committees when the data from any one company is applicable to more than one special wage area.
   3. (3) For each area, survey job descriptions shall be tailored to correspond to the position of each covered supervisor in that area. They will be described at one of four levels (I, II, III, or IV) corresponding to the definitions of the four supervisory situations described in Factor I and four levels of Subfactor IIIA of the FWS Job Grading Standard for Supervisors. A description of the craft, trade, or labor work supervised will be included in each supervisory survey job description.

4. (d) Special wage area boundaries shall be identical to the survey areas covered by the special wage surveys. The areas of application in which the special schedules will be paid are generally smaller than the survey areas, reflecting actual Bureau of Reclamation worksites and the often scattered location of surveyable private sector jobs. Special wage schedules shall be established in the following areas:

   The Great Plains Region Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Montana: All counties except Lincoln, Sanders,Lake, Flathead, Mineral, Missoula, Powell, Granite, and Ravalli Wyoming: All counties except Lincoln, Teton, sublette, Uinta, and Sweetwater Colorado: All counties except Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Mesa, Delta, Montrose, San Miguel, Ouray, Delores, San Juan, Montezuma, La Plata, and Archuleta North Dakota: All counties South Dakota: All counties Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Montana: Broadwater, Jefferson,Lewis and Clark, Yellowstone, and Bighorn Counties Wyoming: All counties except Lincoln, Teton, Sublette, Uinta, and Sweetwater Colorado: Boulder, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Eagle, Fremont, Gilpin, Grand, Lake, Larimer, Park, Pitkin, Pueblo, and Summitt Beginning month of survey: August The Mid-Pacific Region Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) California: Shasta, Sacramento, Butte, San Francisco, Merced, Stanislaus Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) California: Shasta, Sacramento, Fresno, Alameda, Tehoma, Tuolumne, Merced Beginning month of survey: February Green Springs Power Field Station Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Oregon: Jackson Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Oregon: Jackson Beginning month of survey: April Pacific NW. Region Drill Crew Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Montana: Flathead, Missoula Oregon: Lane, Bend, Medford, Umatilla, Multnomah Utah: Salt Lake Idaho: Ada, Canyon, Adams Washington: Spokane, Grant, Lincoln, Okanogan Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Oregon: Deschutes, Jackson, Umatilla Montana: Missoula Idaho: Ada Washington: Grant, Lincoln, Douglas, Okanogan, Yakima Beginning month of survey: April Snake River Area Office (Central Snake/Minidoka) Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Idaho: Ada, Caribou, Bingham, Bannock Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Idaho: Gem, Elmore, Bonneville, Minidoka, Boise, Valley, Power Beginning month of survey: April Hungry Horse Project Office Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Montana: Flathead, Missoula, Cascade, Sanders, Lake Idaho: Bonner Washington: Pend Oreille Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Montana: Flathead Beginning month of survey: March Grand Coulee Power Office (Grand Coulee Project Office) Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Oregon: Multnomah Washington: Spokane, King Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Washington: Grant, Douglas, Lincoln, Okanogan Beginning month of survey: April Upper Columbia Area Office (Yakima) Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Washington: King, Yakima Oregon: Multnomah Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Washington: Yakima Oregon: Umatilla Beginning Month of Survey: September Colorado River Storage Project Area Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Arizona: Apache, Coconino, Navajo Colorado: Moffat, Montrose, Routt, Gunnison, Rio Blanco, Mesa, Garfield, Eagle, Delta, Pitkin, San Miguel, Delores, Montezuma, La Plata, San Juan, Ouray, Archuleta, Hindale, Mineral Wyoming: Unita, Sweetwater, Carbon, Albany, Laramie, Goshen, Platte, Niobrara, Converse, Natrona, Fremont, Sublette, Lincoln Utah: Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Piute, Rich, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Wayne, Weber Special Survey Area of Application (Counties) Arizona: Coconino Colorado: Montrose, Gunnison, Mesa Wyoming: Lincoln Utah: Daggett Beginning month of survey: March Elephant Butte Area Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) New Mexico: Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Donña Ana, Otero, Eddy, Lea, Roosevelt, Chaves, Lincoln, Sierra, Socorro, Catron, Cibola, Valencia, Bernalillo, Torrance, Guadalupe, De Baca, Curry, Quay Texas: El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presido, Brewster, Pecos, Reeves, Loving, Ward, Winkler Arizona: Apache, Greenlee, Graham, Cochise Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) New Mexico: Sierra Beginning month of survey: June Lower Colorado Dams Area Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Nevada: Clark California: Los Angeles Arizona: Maricopa Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Nevada: Clark California: San Bernardino Arizona: Mohave Beginning month of survey: August Yuma Projects Area Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) California: San Diego Arizona: Maricopa, Yuma Note: Bureau of Reclamation may add other survey counties for dredge operator supervisors because of the uniqueness of the occupation and difficulty in finding job matches.) Special Wage Area of Application (Counties) Arizona: Yuma Beginning month of survey: November (Maintenance) and April (Dredging) Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO, Area Special Wage Survey Area (Counties) Colorado: Jefferson, Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Larimer Special Wage Survey Area of Application (Counties) Colorado: Jefferson Beginning month of survey: February

5. (e) These special schedule positions will be identified by pay plan code XE, grade 00, and the Federal Wage System occupational codes will be used. New employees shall be hired at step 1 of the position. With satisfactory or higher performance, advancement between steps shall be automatic after 52 weeks of service.

6. (f)

   1. (1) In the first year of implementation, all special areas will have full-scale surveys.
   2. (2) Current employees shall be placed in step 2 of the new special schedule, or, if their current rate of pay exceeds the rate for step 2, they shall be placed in step 3. Pay retention shall apply to any employee whose rate of basic pay would otherwise be reduced as a result of placement in these new special wage schedules.
   3. (3) The waiting period for within-grade increases shall begin on the employee's first day under the new special schedule.

[60 FR 5310, Jan. 27, 1995, as amended at 69 FR 7105, Feb. 13, 2004; 71 FR 35375, June 20, 2006; 73 FR 45853, Aug. 7, 2008; 78 FR 58154, Sept. 23, 2013; 84 FR 36814, July 30, 2019; 89 FR 4541, Jan. 24, 2024]