Federal employees earn 2% pay raise

Washington Post ^ | 12-9-09 | Ed O'Keefe

[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.

[Randy Larsen]

I got nothing but more tax increases!

[merry10]

I concur.

I also don’t think we should have had any COLAs under Bush. With the two wars going on, federal employees should be glad they are employed and with health insurace.

[merry10]

I do think you are underpaid. As a logistics manager, I depend on my KOs to make sure I am on the straight and narrow, get my projects on contract, etc. Our guys (12s) routinely work on their days off or overtime.

[merry10]

“You make more than the equivelant job in the private sector, have greater job security and get better benefits”

Actually that is not true... I do project management and have worked in contractor’s offices as a government employee while my contractor co-worker was on the phone, telling various other companies that his starting salary would be 120K. The “equivalent” government worker would make 10-20K less at least. And no, wrong again about doing things better and at better cost. Have you heard of Deepwater with DHS? Northrop Grumman and LM did a bang up and ethical job with everything involved with deepwater.

[CMAC51]

I’m sorry, there have been at least three recent studies showing the disparity between private sector and Federal employees. The Federal employees were on the high side for the past 15 to 20 years and the gap is widening. I’m not prepared to your single anecdotal reference as a counter claim.

Why are you referencing government contractors as a sterling example? They are not Federal government employees. They would rather indicate the opposite, where the private sector did a bang up job.

[mom4melody]

You started it by being rude to some of your fellow Freepers. In a span of 2 days I’ve been referred to as a low life because of the breed of my dog and maligned because of my job. If I’m looking to get beat up, I’ll start posting on DU.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

I don’t think saying the truth is being rude and if it is, I apologize for most of what I post.

I said that (challenging the title of this article) that Fed govetnment employees didn’t “earn” anything” and explained that a cost of living increase is not “earned” it is given. Everyone gets the same increase. It is not based on what one has accomplished in one’s job....it is based on a formula...and it is “given” not “earned”.

Then I posted that millions in the private sector had received pay cuts or no pay at all this past year due to the economy.

And that there is nothing like this COLA increase out there in the private sector. There is no automatic pay increase out there for people working in private sector jobs. If a company can’t make it’s payroll, it either cuts pay or cuts employees.

However, that is not true with government jobs.

Again - this is not a whine - it is a fact.

More power to those who have federal jobs. I have advised many young people to try to find a federal government job because it has the best salary and benefits and securitiy compared to anything in the private sector that is a “middle class” type of job. And if you are in the “elite” in government, you do much better than even the best in the private sector.

However, we are way past it being fair or sustainable to continue to make automatic, unearned pay increases in the public sector when the private sector is in such bad shape.

That’s just a fact. We are broke.

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

However, we are way past it being fair or sustainable to continue to make automatic, unearned pay increases in the public sector when the private sector is in such bad shape.

That’s just a fact. We are broke.

AMEN!!!! Dh works 10-12 hour days quite often as a manufacturing engineer, salaried, no pay raise this year, but to his company's credit, no layoffs either. Add to that the third of our four kids started Catholic school in the fall and our belts had to get even tighter.

Meanwhile, we're finishing paying off our debt except for the house, socking away what we can, and living as bare bones as possible (our 'new' car is almost 10 years old). In the meantime, our TOTUS is living it up around the world, spending my kids' future, while telling us little people to sacrifice and screwing over people like my husband's employer.

So yeah, maybe I'm just a TAD resentful.

[merry10]

Sorry to YOU But NG and LM did NOT do a bang up job in that case.

And that was one example; another example is the guy I work for who is a 14 and spends a lot of time going to various companies around the beltway so we can execute projects. I work with a mid size company as the govt person and we get along well. I prefer them more than the big guys.

[CBF]

Yeah, you’ve been extremely rude and judgmental throughout the entire thread, along with a couple of other posters. I have not taken part, just reading the comments back and forth. Why are you attacking these people for having jobs? They work for the government, the don’t run it. They are on this site because they support certain principles, last time I checked, FR didn’t have a “private sector only” sticker on it. Why don’t you try attacking the issue rather than fellow posters, it really was quite offensive to read.

[Not A Snowbird]

I understand what you’re trying to say about “given” v. “earned”.

The annual COLA is given, just because we’re breathing and on the payroll.

An award would be earned, and should be based on individual merit and performance. I say “should be” because managers have a tendency to spread award money out evenly so nobody gets mad, which drives me crazy. Watching my USELESS coworker get an award just to be “fair” while we all did the work was not so great for morale.

It’s a mercy she retired. I inherited her workload, which takes about 30 minutes out of my day. When you look in the dictionary under “Sterotypical Lazy Federal Worker” her photo was there.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Totally understand. Kudos to you all paying off your debt and am glad your husband still has his job - but for sure belt tightening to the max has been happening for millions.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Exactly right re: COLA - thanks for understanding what I was saying.

OH - my - LOL - glad that one lazy government worker is now off the payroll! And that her workload was nothing tremendous for you to pick up. LOL...30 minutes ....oh my!

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Tell me exactly what comment was rude, please.

I normally do not attack other posters. So, if I did that, I apologize.

But I do believe the issue of automatic pay increases for government (taxpayer funded) employees is very relevant to the issues that FR members care about - one being out of control federal spending!

[Not A Snowbird]

We got together and timed her one day to see how much time she spent actually working and how much she spent goofing around on the internet.

I don't remember what the final result was, but it was less than 30 minutes. I won a Starbucks mocha from my other two coworkers for guessing closest.

We were aggravated beyond belief that management wouldn't take action. Even yanking her internet access would have made our day (and forced her to retire sooner.) ;)

[tanknetter]

Hey! Not all feds are undeserving of a 2% raise. I bust my ass and do a good job! Give us a break!

Yes, I'm sure you do. As do a LOT of Federal employees.

Which is actually a strong case AGAINST this sort of across-the-board pay increase and in favor of pay-for-performance.

One thing that gets left out of discussions like this is that for many Federal employees the 2% will be on top of their automatic annual step (or even, in some case, grade) increases. IIRC at Steps 1-5 a step increase on top of the base increase + locality differential happens every year. Steps 5-7 it's every two years and above 7 its every three years, right?

So a GS10 Step 2 in the Washington DC area that made $57,362 in FY09 will take the 2%, and an automatic promotion to Step 3 for FY10, and make $60,396 ... an increase of $3,034 or about a 5.3% payraise.. And that's just for BREATHING and not doing anything that will get them fired.

[tanknetter]

I’m sorry, there have been at least three recent studies showing the disparity between private sector and Federal employees. The Federal employees were on the high side for the past 15 to 20 years and the gap is widening. I’m not prepared to your single anecdotal reference as a counter claim.

Please see "Freedom'sWorthIt" Wall St. Journal article reference earlier in this thread indicating that Federal employees would require (generically) a 16.5% pay increase to bring them up to private sector equivalency.

There's a larger issue at work here. There's a rapidly approaching "perfect storm" in the Federal workforce with a combination of mass retirements (especially at the GS15 and SES levels) by Baby Boomer Feds, the tanked economy, desire by the Obama Administration to increase the Federal workforce and a high turnover at the sub-GS15 level (GenXers in GS12-14 slots who are getting tired of the Baby Boomers not getting out of their way and who have been leaving for the better private sector pay and leadership opportunities).

Result is going to be a requirement for MASSIVE Federal hiring in the next decade or so.

The questions then become: who enters Federal service, and who within Federal service gets promoted to leadership positions?

Keeping pay low is going to act as a disincentive to attracting talented, hard-working people. So the people who will get hired (because they are the ones who will actually apply) are either ideologues who believe strongly in the power of government and are willing to take salary hits for "the cause" (read: Liberal nanny-state do-gooders) or those who can't get paying jobs elsewhere (read: people with ACORN experience on their resumes).

Personally, I think the above is a component of what Obama is trying to do with this situation ... and it'll have an impact on what the government does and how it does it for the next generation or two.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

ROFL - timing her internet use....LOL. Thanks for that picture and glad she is gone!

[Not A Snowbird]

Which is actually a strong case AGAINST this sort of across-the-board pay increase and in favor of pay-for-performance.

My agency tried to do that. The union had a screaming hissy fit and the plan was scrapped.

[Not A Snowbird]

Yep, steps 1-4 are annual, steps 5-7 are every two years, and 8-10 are every three years.