We are a subcontractor. The ultimate Government client has "tripwire" rates, where if a contractor rate in a certain category is over a certain rate, it requires SES-level approval for funding. An engineer must not cost more than $130/hr for example. The prime contract is CPFF, and our subcontract is CPFF. This makes it strange because they basically take CPFF rates and roll them up like a T&M rate and compare them against this tripwire. Is there any reason we have to bid the same fee percentage on each person? We have one expensive engineer that is close to the tripwire rate. Could we bid her fee percentage lower than the other two engineers on the task? Since it is CPFF, not cost plus percentage of cost, it seems to me that this would be ok. As long as the bid makes it clear which dollar amount is cost and which is fee, it seems like we could bid the "rates" however we want, understanding their cost is their cost and that cannot be changed for the bid.
Please let me know if you see any issues with this approach.