TOPICS
TOPICS
House appropriators approve 3.9 percent civilian pay raise
A House committee on Wednesday approved a bill granting civilian federal employees a 2009 pay raise of 3.9 percent.
The House Appropriations Committee voted in favor of the raise as part of the fiscal 2009 financial services and general government appropriations bill. The adjustment is 1 percent higher than the increase proposed by the Bush administration, which in February called for a 2.9 percent hike for civilian workers and a 3.4 percent pay boost for military personnel.
The adjustment also is identical to the amount recently authorized by the House for members of the military services.
Approval of the raise drew praise from federal labor unions, which have been lobbying for pay parity between civilian employees and uniformed service members, and for a raise higher than the president's request.
National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley called the move "a wise investment in providing high-quality government services to taxpayers."
A portion of the proposed 3.9 percent pay hike civilian workers would receive in 2009 would be allocated for locality pay; the rest would go toward an across-the-board increase.
COMMENTS
- COLA, Raise Are Two Separate Things The annual COLA announcement always sets off a round of confusion in the federal community involving raises and COLA's. The COLA goes to those who are retired, and is an automatic adjustment linked to a consumer price index. The raise goes to those who are active employees and is determined through the congressional budget process. The raise is in part linked to the employment cost index, which is a measure of private sector wage growth—NOT LIVING COSTS—and that is based on a different measuring period than the CPI figure used for the COLA. The raise and the COLA adjustments do not directly affect each other. However, there is often confusion on that point, in part because many employees refer to their raises as COLAs, and some retirees refer to their COLA's as raises. There you have it. Now stop whining about economic conditions if you're an active federal employee. Fed Up Posted July 1, 2008 4:05 PM
- One More Time on Raises vs. COLA's There appears to be considerable confusion regarding the relationship between pay raises and COLA's now that both have kicked in for 2008. The two increases are separate, are determined in different ways, and have no direct connection with each other. Retirees who are eligible for COLA's received them with their January annuity payments—2.3 percent for those retired under CSRS, 2 percent for those retired under FERS and who are eligible for COLAs (generally, FERS doesn’t pay COLA's until age 62). The COLA's are paid to retirees, not active employees, and are determined by a cost of living formula whose final tabulation came out in October. The pay raise goes to active employees, not retirees. The pay raise is negotiated during the annual budget process and is linked to an employment cost index measure of labor costs—NOT LIVING COSTS. Thus, while many employees call the raise a COLA, it isn’t one. Do any of you read before posting? Obviously not. Fed Up Posted July 1, 2008 4:01 PM
- I don't understand the complaints about the increased cost of living. We voted for it a year and half ago and I expect we will vote to extend the increases this November. We should all look to what our favorite candidates actually say and have actually done in the past to raise or cut our cost of living before we vote. the problem with the American system of government is that we usually get what we vote for. We did last election and we will this next election. conservative Posted July 1, 2008 11:10 AM
