Claim for Retroactive Pay Adjustment

A General Schedule employee who received a pay adjustment for supervising a prevailing rate employee with a higher pay rate appealed his claim for retroactive pay from the first day he supervised the employee. The agency had approved an increase effective quite a bit later, and the employee has been receiving that adjusted rate. Since entitlement to such an adjustment is within the discretion of the agency, rather than mandated by agency policy, and since there was no abuse of discretion to warrant retroactive compensation, GAO held that the employee was not entitled to a further adjustment. Accordingly, the previous settlement was sustained.