---
kind: "section"
citation: "22 U.S.C. § 3974"
title: "22"
title_heading: "Foreign Relations and Intercourse"
number: "3974"
heading: "Border equalization pay adjustment"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/22/3974"
units:
  - "Chapter 52 — Foreign Service"
  - "Subchapter IV — Compensation"
---

# §3974. Border equalization pay adjustment

- (a) **In general—** An [employee](#b) who regularly commutes from the [employee](#b)’s place of residence in the [continental United States](/usc/22/1395.md?p=a-1) to an official duty station in Canada or Mexico shall receive a border equalization pay adjustment equal to the amount of comparability payments under [section 5304 of title 5](/usc/5/5304.md) that the [employee](#b) would receive if the [employee](#b) were assigned to an official duty station within the [United States](/usc/22/1395.md?p=a-1) locality pay area closest to the [employee](#b)’s official duty station.
- (b) **Employee defined—** For purposes of this section, the term “employee” means a person who—
  - (1) is an “[employee](#b)” as defined under [section 2105 of title 5](/usc/5/2105.md); and
  - (2) is employed by the Department of State, the [United States](/usc/22/1395.md?p=a-1) [Agency](/usc/22/3902.md?p=2) for International Development, or the International Joint [Commission](/usc/22/277d–43.md?p=2) of the [United States](/usc/22/1395.md?p=a-1) and Canada (established under Article VII of the treaty signed January 11, 1909) (36 Stat. 2448), except that the term shall not include members of the Service (as specified in [section 3903 of this title](/usc/22/3903.md)).
- (c) **Treatment as basic pay—** An equalization pay adjustment paid under this section shall be considered to be part of basic pay for the same purposes for which comparability payments are considered to be part of basic pay under [section 5304 of title 5](/usc/5/5304.md).
- (d) **Regulations—** The heads of the [agencies](/usc/22/3902.md?p=2) referred to in [subsection (b)(2)](#b-2) may prescribe regulations to carry out this section.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–465, title I, § 414, as added Pub. L. 106–113, div. B, § 1000(a)(7) [div. A, title III, § 333(a)], Nov. 29, 1999, 113 Stat. 1536, 1501A–439.)