Editorial policy

What counts as a source

Only primary texts: OPM's salary tables and their XML files, OPM's locality pay area definitions and special rate tables, executive orders and notices in the Federal Register, title 5 of the U.S. Code and of the Code of Federal Regulations, OPM's retirement publications, the Social Security Administration's annual determinations, and IRS limits. News articles, union bulletins and other calculators can point us to a change; we publish it only once we have read the primary text.

How a figure reaches a page

Each amount is entered once, in a parameter file, with the link to its source and the date it was read. Pages and calculators read that file; nobody types a figure into a page. When an amount changes, every page that uses it changes at the same time, and the date at the top of the page tells you which edition you are reading.

Proposals are labeled

A raise proposed by the President, a bill reported by a committee or a cost-of-living figure not yet confirmed by OPM is shown as a proposal or a scenario, with its date, never as a rate. A figure we could not confirm is not published. Assumptions you can change in a calculator (inflation, raises, your Social Security estimate) are marked as yours.

Independence

Radif Partners receives nothing from financial advisers, insurers, plan providers or employee organizations, and the site carries no advertising and no affiliate links. It is not affiliated with OPM or any agency, and it does not present itself as one.

Review and corrections

Every page is reviewed at least every 12 months and whenever a rule or table it relies on changes: in practice, each January for pay and each October for the COLA and Social Security figures. A reported error is checked against the primary text; if we were wrong, the page is corrected and dated. Write through the contact page.