The Obama administration next week will ask Congress to standardize pay and benefits rules for federal civilian employees assigned to combat zones. The plan will be included as part of the administration's 2011 budget proposal.

"This is an effort [we] have been working on for about a year," said Marilee Fitzgerald, acting deputy undersecretary of Defense for civilian personnel policy. "We're working as a group to ensure we design the right incentives and move it through the legislative process."

She and other federal officials declined to discuss details of the plan until the budget is released. But the aim is to standardize danger, hardship and overtime pays — and post-deployment medical benefits.

Congressional auditors and lawmakers have criticized the disparities under current policies.

"Although these civilians are working under similar conditions and being exposed to the same risks, they may be receiving different levels of compensation and medical benefits," Brenda Farrell, the Government Accountability Office's director of Defense capabilities and management, told lawmakers in September. "When these civilians are deployed and serve side by side, the differences in pay systems may become more apparent and may adversely affect morale."

The government made some progress in recent years toward achieving equal combat zone pay. GAO said last year that agencies other than the State Department are now offering deployed employees the same 35 percent danger pay and 35 percent post hardship differential that State pays its employees in war zones. And the Labor Department in August published final regulations allowing all agencies to offer a $100,000 death gratuity for employees who die due to injuries sustained while working with the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But while employees who deploy for six months or less — as a temporary duty assignment — retain locality pay, employees deployed longer as part of an official change of station do not receive locality pay. This means those being deployed longer than six months lose tens of thousands of dollars in pay each year.

And since locality pay is considered part of an employee's base salary when calculating danger pay or the hardship differential and overtime, the pay gap between these employees widens further.

Overtime pay also varies wildly. Employees under the Defense Department's soon-to-be-defunct National Security Personnel System receive time-and-a-half for each hour of overtime they work. But under the General Schedule system, overtime pay is capped at $32.90 per hour. Anyone who normally makes more than that rate will earn only his regular hourly rate when working overtime.

GAO said last year that since employees often work at least 20 hours of overtime in a two-week pay period in a war zone, that difference can add up.

And the amount of leave a deployed civilian gets depends on his agency, GAO said. For example, Defense gives employees up to three rest-and-recuperation breaks back to the U.S. or other designated locations such as London per year, but the Justice Department provides only two. On the other hand, Justice allows employees to take up to three short breaks each year to nations near Iraq and Afghanistan, but Defense doesn't offer such regional rest.

"It's more complex than you think," said Jill Crissman, a staffer on the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia. "There are hundreds of kinds of pay categories and leave, not just three or four."

The government also is likely to address medical and psychological care for civilians deployed to war zones as part of the new benefit package.

"It will look at workman's comp issues," Crissman said. "When people get injured, what happens when they come home and there are longer-term treatment issues?"

Currently, military hospitals treat all sick or injured federal civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. And though wounded federal civilians in the past have had problems getting military hospitals to continue treating them once they return home, Crissman said that is improving. Labor recently set up an office in Cleveland to help feds injured in combat zones with their claims, she said.

But some wounded feds are still having trouble dealing with worker's compensation and sometimes have to fend for themselves, Crissman said. "The problem is, there's no system to send them back to in the U.S.," such as those the Veterans Affairs Department has, she said.

And Farrell said there is still confusion on whether civilians are eligible for military medical treatment after deployment.

Crissman said she fears that recent changes in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars will place federal civilians at an increased risk of injury. The U.S. military is beginning to wind down its mission in Iraq and there won't be as many soldiers to protect federal civilians. At the same time, more federal civilians are deploying to Afghanistan.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., in 2008 called on the Office of Personnel Management to create standardized benefits for all deployed civilians. He said the House Armed Services Committee, of which he is a member, will likely review the proposal as part of the budget process. "We won't have folks willing to go overseas if there are questions about their benefits package," he said.