A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill ensuring federal employees in Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. territories receive the same retirement benefit opportunities as Mainland federal employees.

About 20,000 federal employees in Hawaii would be affected by the legislation sponsored by Hawaii Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye.

The bill would transition the workers from non-foreign cost-of-living allowance, or COLA, to locality pay.

The affected employees may receive up to 25 percent of their base pay as non-foreign COLA, which isn't taxed and doesn't count toward an employee's retirement.

The amount of non-foreign COLA is based on the local cost of living compared to the cost of living in Washington, D.C.

Locality pay is based on labor costs in a particular area.