Post allowance has gone up across most of Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and Belgium, but stayed flat in the U.K. after plunging there mid-February, according to a release posted Wednesday on the U.S. State Department’s Office of Allowances Web site.
According to the release, post allowance changes in all European countries were based on currency exchange rate information.
Increases in post allowance, which went into effect Sunday, will boost the paychecks of the highest paid civilians in most of Germany and the Netherlands by almost $11 per day. The lowest-paid employees in those areas will see an increase of about $2 per day.
In much of Belgium, the rate increase will put between $2.23 a day and $12.45 a day more in paychecks for employees in most areas, however, rates were flat in SHAPE, Chievres, Mons and Gosselies.
Rates in most of Italy are flat as well, going up only in Florence, Milan and Turin.
Civilian employees in the United Kingdom, where the local currency, the pound, trades for about $1.93, saw no increase in their post allowance. The allowance across most of the U.K. slipped mid-February, leaving employees there with anywhere from $2 a day to $12.45 a day less in their checks. The mid-February drops in the allowance in the U.K. were based on survey data, according to an Office of Allowances release from Feb. 22. But post allowance rates at most U.K. locales are still modestly higher that they were at this time last year.
In most areas of Germany post allowance is back where it started at the beginning of the year — at record highs. An employee with no children who makes between $55,000 and $59,999 a year is now getting about $26.92 a day in post allowance at almost every locale in Germany, though the rate is higher in some areas. That same employee in the U.K. is getting about $22.44 a day in post allowance.
The allowance, designed to reimburse employees for certain excess costs they encounter as a result of their overseas employment, can be adjusted as often as every two weeks and varies by location.
For more information on the post allowance and the newest rates, visit the State Department’s allowance Web site at: http://www.state.gov/rates/by_location.asp.
