Posted on 12/09/2009 11:43:10 AM PST by Justaham
Congressional appropriators agreed Tuesday night to give civilian federal employees a 2 percent pay increase -- which includes a locality pay increase President Obama didn't want.
Government workers will get a 1.5 percent nationwide increase in base pay and a 0.5 percent average increase in locality pay. The final agreement goes against the wishes of Obama, who called for a flat 2 percent jump and no locality increase.
Locality pay helps address the gaps between federal pay and private sector wages in high-cost areas of the country. The Federal Salary Council estimates the current private-public gap is about 26 percent, on average. Locality increases mean a federal worker in Cincinnati might get a smaller increase than a worker in Washington, D.C., because of local costs of living.
“I am pleased the final bill will provide for locality pay to reflect variable costs for federal employees working in various job markets,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement Tuesday night. “This provision is critical to bringing federal pay in line with the private sector and enabling the federal government to compete for high quality talent.” Hoyer's Congressional district is home to thousands of federal employees.
The pay increase will take effect once the House and Senate pass the FY'10 omnibus appropriations bill. Lawmakers hope to pass a host of key bills before year's end.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
“earn”
Yea for them. I took a 5% cut.
Hope and Change. Nothing for anyone else but more taxes.
Anger is building out here. The current scum in charge do not know how that anger is spreading.
One too many words in that headline...make it read 2% pay.
Hey! Not all feds are undeserving of a 2% raise. I bust my ass and do a good job! Give us a break!
Cue the government employee bashers in 3...2...1...
I work for a Fortune 500 company and I bust my ass and do a good job, too. I haven't had a salary increase in two years, won't get one for 2010, and had by salary cut by 5% in 2009. Cry me a river.
Tens of millions of Americans are unemployed. Millions more took pay cuts, and have been hit by tax increases, especially in states like California. But the feds get a pay raise, for being part of the largest deficit ever recorded. And not just by a little bit - nope, the record was blown away.
Government is the problem, never the solution. Oh, and forget 2% - when you account for health care benefits, you can make that a 7% increase.
Couple this raise with a 30% lay-off and it would be the right thing to do ...
Who is crying? Maybe you need to find another job.
Contrary to Hoyer’s assertion, Federal pay is not “in line” with the private sector - it far exceeds that available in the private sector - except, of course for the military. Combine that with better benefits, more vacation time, and for many, a considerably lighter work load, and it’s little wonder why the Washington, D.C. metro area is the only truly booming regional economy in America.
Reagan signed off on a 4.1% Federal Pay Raise, Bush a 3.44, even Clinton signed off on a 2.8.
Really not the best thing to do in this environment when Gov’t is growing so much...
They didn’t “earn” anything.
Wonder if that 2% raise includes the retired federal workers?
Maybe you need a taste of what the private sector is going through?
I’m not crying - pleased with the salary I get too.
And you know this how?
I also work for a Fortune 500 company and am in roughly the same position. There's just one problem: there aren't any other jobs.
Except for public sector jobs, that is - they're the only ones you see in the want ads these days: school teachers and supervisors, state and Federal agency personnel, deputy assistant undersecretaries to the regional assistant chief development officer in charge of janitorial services; you know: vital stuff like that.
But try to cut a state budget by two percent and they'll threaten to lay off half the firefighters and policemen and your house will burn to the ground while being ransacked by roving gangs of unemployed youths.
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