COLA Guidance

The following describes the COLA procedure used by BNL.  It is based on approved State Department guidelines.  We provide this to the US ATLAS community to serve as guidance for calculating COLA for all CERN-based staff.  

While we suggest this as a guidance, the final decision on COLA rests firmly with the supervising PI of the respective institute.

COLA’s are calculated using information from three areas:

1. US Dept of State (% rate and allowance by location)

2. Salary and Employment Status

3. Employee Status(including dependents)

        (#2 and 3 will affect what % Allowance bracket the employee fall in)

US Department of State, Office of Allowances – COLA % rate 

1. To find the COLA % rate navigate to Office of Allowances, Allowances by Location, and select country (https://aoprals.state.gov/Web920/location.asp?menu_id=95)

   1. For CERN we are using FRANCE - https://aoprals.state.gov/Web920/location_action.asp?MenuHide=1&CountryCode=1087

   2. The allowances table is updated every 14 days and for consistency and we use the earliest date of the month.

   3. To see previous rates, change the date and click “Go” (must click Go in order for the page to update)

2. Find the Post Name -- For CERN we use "Lyon" because the allowance rates for the city of Geneva are very high. Most U.S. people live on the French side due to the much higher cost of living in Geneva. The French side can only be described by the “Other” category. The closest French city is Lyon. Acknowledging that the cost of living at a suburb of Geneva may be higher, we have chosen to use the Lyon rates. We choose to use the Lyon rates regardless of where the person actually lives near Geneva and inform the person of this policy so that they can make an informed decision of where they choose to rent. We also encourage everyone to reach out to Alexia Leyval, US ATLAS relocation coordinator, who can help in finding suitable accommodations in the Geneva neighborhood

3. Column “Cost of Living Allowance % of Spendable Income” will give the %

Post Allowance Payment Tables 

1. Confirm employee is still on assignment and their household status (single/married/child(ren)

2. Confirm current salary

3. Navigate to the Department of State Standardized Regulations (DSSR), Table of Contents (DSSR)

   1. https://aoprals.state.gov/content.asp?content_id=282&menu_id=101

   2. Click on “229 Post Allowance Payment Tables”

   3. Select the table based on number of people in the household (number corresponds to the EPA/COS form)

   4. Find the annual salary bracket and the current Allowance % rate to get the annual COLA $ amount

Link opens as a word document, “229.1 Post Allowance Payment Tables_20230101.docx“, with the title “POST ALLOWANCE PAYMENT TABLES (SIX TABLES)”

***Note the effective date (currently 1/1/2023)

Monthly COLA calculation

1. Divide the annual COLA $ amount from “229 Post Allowance Payment Tables” by 12 months to get to the COLA $ amount for the month.

COLA EXAMPLE: