An equivalent increase is an increase or increases in an employee's rate of basic pay equal to or greater than the difference between the rate of pay for the GS grade and step occupied by the employee and the next higher step of the grade. If an employee receives more than one increase in a waiting period for the step of his or her grade, none of which is an equivalent increase, all the increases must be added together until they total or exceed an equivalent increase. At that time the employee is deemed to have received an equivalent increase or within-grade increase. Service creditable for purposes of completing a waiting period includes all civilian employment in any branch of the government including periods of paid leave, periods of continuation of pay under section 8118 of the title 5, and service under a temporary appointment. Time in excess of the allowable limits extends the waiting period by a corresponding period.
Intermittent employees get one day credit for every day paid even if they only work an hour.
When an employee moves between pay systems, hourly rates must be made annual rates for purposes of comparison. A new waiting period began on the same date. The figure now used to compute the annual rate from an hourly figure is 2087.