Bipartisan Coalition of Lawmakers Renew 5.1% Raise Campaign for Federal Employees
In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, a coalition of 62 lawmakers led by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) urged Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) to include in the fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations a 5.1 percent salary raise for all federal employees, to override President Biden's proposal for an average 4.6 percent raise in 2023.
As previously reported by FEDmanager, the 5.1 percent increase reflects the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act (H.R.392/S.561). Introduced by Rep. Connolly and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), the legislation would increase the basic pay of federal employees by 4.1 percent, and locality pay by 1.0 percent.
While the lawmakers commended Biden for his efforts since taking office to improve the compensation of federal employees—including a 2.7 percent pay raise in 2022 and a $15 minimum wage for all federal employees and contractors. After two years of an international pandemic and escalating inflation, the lawmakers note it is imperative to address the "chronic underinvestment" in the federal workforce.
“In the last 12 years, we’ve seen some healthy increases, but we’ve also seen pay frozen. We’ve seen zero increases or 1 percent. So, our goal is to try to meet the pay gap in federal wages,” Rep. Connolly stated in an interview.
As the federal government seeks to dramatically boost employment, lawmakers argue that improved pay is critical to enhancing its competitiveness. Pay raises become even more consequential as more federal workers become eligible to retire, which boosts recruiting and retaining early-career employees.
The lawmakers cite a 2020 report from the Federal Salary Council, which estimates federal employees make on average 23.1 percent less than their counterparts in the private sector.
“Over the past decade, federal employee pay increases failed to keep pace with rising labor and living costs. Additionally, federal workers weathered multiple pay freezes, hiring freezes and lost pay as the result of sequestration-related furloughs including two of the longest government shutdowns in U.S. history,” the letter stated.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which asserts that Congress and the White House regularly disregard labor market comparability regulations for federal pay, has endorsed the pay raise proposal.
“Most federal employees are covered under two pay systems,” AFGE noted, “Both pay systems are based on the principle of local labor market comparability. But successive Congresses and administrations have failed to adhere to this principle, causing federal wages and salaries to fall far below the standards set in the private sector and state and local governments. As a result, federal employees are underpaid relative to their non-federal counterparts.”
