1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Locality Pay Equity Act of 2018 . 2. Limiting the number of local wage areas defined within a General Schedule pay locality (a) Local wage area limitation Section 5343(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended— (1) in paragraph (1)(B)(i), by striking (but such and all that follows through are employed) ; (2) in paragraph (4), by striking and after the semicolon; (3) in paragraph (5), by striking the period after Islands and inserting ; and ; and (4) by adding at the end the following: (6) the Office of Personnel Management shall define not more than 1 local wage area within a pay locality, except that this paragraph shall not apply to the pay locality designated as Rest of United States . . (b) General Schedule pay locality defined Section 5342(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended— (1) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking and after the semicolon; (2) in paragraph (3), by striking the period after employee and inserting ; and ; and (3) by adding at the end the following: (4) pay locality has the meaning given that term under section 5302. . 3. Regulations The Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall prescribe any regulations necessary to carry out the purpose of this Act, including regulations to ensure that the enactment of this Act shall not have the effect of reducing any rate of basic pay payable to any individual who is serving as a prevailing rate employee (as defined under section 5342(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code). 4. Applicability The amendments made by this Act shall apply on and after the first day of the first full pay period beginning at least 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act.