Federal civilian employees in Germany will soon see a dip in their paychecks again.

Two weeks after the State Department announced that the civilian cost-of-living adjustment — known as a post allowance — was going up, a message was sent out this week announcing it was going back down. The State Department is responsible for calculating allowances for overseas civilians.

The allowance is meant to help government workers living abroad have the same buying power they would in the United States. The formula is based on “spendable income,” or what a person typically spends on goods off-base.

One of the biggest factors in figuring the adjustment, according to a State Department official, is the dollar’s strength against the euro. In the past two weeks, for instance, the dollar has gained nearly two cents against the euro. On May 6, $1 was worth .7515 euros. On Friday, that same dollar bought .77 euros.

The post allowance has been on a roller coaster ride in the last month. In early April, the adjustment fell, only to rise two weeks later. Now, for the third straight paycheck, the allowance will change again, by about 16 percent.

As a result of the rate decrease, a government civilian living in Germany who earns $42,000-$44,999 a year will see his annual cost-of-living stipend go from $5,940 to $4,950, or about a $38 loss every two weeks.

With the euro remaining strong against the dollar, the dip in post allowance doesn’t seem to make sense, said Sandi Cox, a federal civilian employee in Bamberg, Germany.

“The [exchange rate] has been the same; it hasn’t really dropped,” she said. “Many of my bills are in euros, and the cost of living here is higher. I do a lot of my shopping off post, and this will have an effect on that.”

Cox, a GS-7, said the decrease in post allowance could really hurt civilian employees in lower pay grades.

“It’s terrible. A lot of people really rely on that allowance to cope with the high cost of living. The people who really rely on that extra money are going to be hurt by this.”