In the cost-of-living lawsuit, some federal workers here said that it is not uncommon for employees reaching the ends of their careers to try to maximize their pension benefits by transferring to Mainland federal jobs that receive higher "locality" pay.

Because federal pensions are calculated on an average of the three highest-paid consecutive years of service in a worker's career, career employees here can significantly increase their pension benefits by transferring to a Mainland federal post for three years, plaintiffs in the case said.

The maneuver is called "getting your high three."

Now-retired U.S. Deputy Marshal Ramon Buyson said in the suit that he transferred from Hawai'i to Las Vegas in 2000 "in order to receive locality pay benefits and achieve my 'high three.'"

But his wife wasn't happy in Las Vegas and the couple returned here in 2001, Buyson said.

Another planned transfer to a post in San Diego in 2004 was canceled by Buyson because of family hardship and he remained in Honolulu until his retirement in July 2007.

"After nearly 28 years of federal service, I retired without ever having been able to achieve a 'high three' for retirement purposes," Buyson said in the court case.

Joyce Matsuo, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she and her husband, Roy, spent their careers working for the federal government in Hawai'i and in 2005, Roy Matsuo transferred to a job in San Diego "for the express purpose of obtaining locality pay and increasing his future retirement benefits."

She remained in Honolulu to help care for his elderly parents, an arrangement that severely strained the family, according to a sworn affidavit Matsuo filed in the case.

Roy Matsuo "decided to return to Hawai'i after 17 months because of the extreme hardships posed for our family by the separation," his wife said.

The locality pay benefit for a federal worker in San Diego is about 20 percent above his or her base salary. That would have meant a $17,704 gross income increase for someone at Matsuo's pay scale.

Unlike the tax-free COLA benefit of about $21,000 per year Matsuo was receiving in Hawai'i, he would have had to pay income taxes on the locality pay, but achieving the "high three" would have had "enormous" economic benefits for the couple, Joyce Matsuo said in the suit.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.