Civilian post allowance rates in Italy tied to survey results, not dollar’s decline

Civilian post allowance rates in Italy tied to survey results, not dollar’s decline
By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, February 12, 2008

If you’re a civilian living in the Naples, Italy, area and work for the U.S. government, your counterparts in the north have a message for you: Buy Italian!

Post allowance rates — the civilian equivalent of the military cost-of-living allowance — for people based in Vicenza, Aviano, and also Sigonella, Sicily, are tied to the Naples rate. So, unless Naples civilian employees indicate on government surveys that they do most of their shopping off base, the post allowance rate won’t be rising significantly any time soon.

“Everybody sees the decline in the dollar and you don’t see the change in the post allowance,” said Mark Fix, a teacher at Aviano High School.

That’s because the last living pattern survey — conducted in 2007 — indicated that civilians in Naples buy most of their goods on base. When that’s the case, changes in the exchange rate don’t have much of an impact. Those making most of their purchases on base are using dollars to buy products from American institutions, making the strength of the euro irrelevant.

Carl Paschall, director of the State Department’s Office of Allowances, said in a recent interview that post allowances are designed to give civilians who work for the U.S. government overseas the same purchasing power as someone working in Washington, D.C. The government does this mostly with the help of two surveys: a living pattern survey that determines where people shop and what they buy; and an annual retail price survey comparing specific items at those locations to the same goods in Washington.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52403