In a pair of filings in the Federal Register Monday, Labor Department officials set the range of minimum wages for contractors between $9.30 per hour for tipped workers to $17.75 per hour, depending on the job type.
The president each August must declare an “economic emergency” to prevent large automatic increases to locality pay from taking effect, in accordance with the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act.
The agency said that no additional funding and a high pay increase for federal employees helped create its budget shortfall, but GOP leaders called it a failure to adjust spending.
The HHS rule would require wage and benefit increases for Head Start staff, but Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., claimed the proposed changes would reduce funded, if vacant, slots in the education program.
The country’s wildland firefighting resources are spread thin, more blazes are imminent, and supervisors of local crews are reluctant to allow firefighters to travel far from home to help elsewhere.
The Louisiana Republican has introduced bills to bar federal workers from receiving locality pay if they telework at least once per week and excising locality pay from all future feds’ pensions.
With neither chamber in Congress willing to override President Biden, his plan to increase federal workers’ pay by 2% on average appears headed for implementation later this year.
A two-decades old Office of Personnel Management advisory opinion capping increased pay for federal workers temporarily performing duties of a higher-graded position at 120 days inadvertently penalized workers rather than their errant employer.
The gender pay gap in the federal government was 5.6% in 2022, meaning women federal workers earned on average 94 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.
The House Appropriations Committee is set to advance a spending package Tuesday that would codify recent temporary pay raises for federal wildland firefighters into law and fund them to the tune of $330 million.
Although lawmakers have yet to act on a bill to codify the Biden administration’s decision to provide Transportation Security Administration employees with Title 5 protections and compensation, Congress is poised to continue funding the initiative.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last week advanced its version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, endorsing a 2% average pay raise for civilian federal workers alongside a 4.5% increase for military service members.
Analysis favored by conservatives shows that when comparing workers’ “total compensation,” the private sector has nearly caught up to the federal government’s pay and benefits package for employees.
Workforce attrition has halved since the implementation of a new pay system that mirrors the General Schedule, while employee morale has reached its highest ever, according to the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
Highly skilled firefighters are the last line of defense against wildfires, but that line is fraying because the government decided long ago that they’re not worth very much.
Multiple groups representing federal employees expressed their displeasure this week at the White House’s proposed pay raise, noting that it falls both behind the cost of inflation and military compensation.