Boring but important: Senate passes 3.9 percent civilian pay raise

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Boring but important: Senate passes 3.9 percent civilian pay raise

Much Needed Raise for Federal Employees!

By Richard Hartman Jul 15 2008, 11:03 AM

In defiance to the administration's support of the federal workforce to provide a meager 2.9 percent raise for civilian employees next year, and a 3.4 percent raise for those in the military, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that would increase civilian federal employees' pay by 3.9 percent in 2009.

The goal of these increases is to provide for a cost of living adjustment as well as make military pay commensurate with civilian pay for similar jobs. While the increase sounds nice, it hasn't been signed into law yet, because the Congressional Budget is far from being finalized, and if you recall how the process went this past year, don't count on seeing it until February.

Hopefully though, Congress and a lame-duck President can get their work accomplished quickly and prevent unnecessary inconvenience to families.

Of course, we all realize that with the increasing costs of fuel, food, energy, and housing this 3.9 percent increase will really be a small pay cut, but that's a topic for another day.

[+] House panel approves 3.9 percent civilian raise

[+] Federal Pay Outpaces Private Sector?

[+] Federal Pay Calendars for Fiscal Year 08 and 09

Read More: Office Of Management And Budget (OMB), Office Of Personnel Management (OPM), Pay And Benefits

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Blake
July 16, 2008 7:14 AM

A 3.9% pay raise, if all civilian government employees worked 40 weeks for eight dollars an hour and took two weeks off a year (I fear that this is a rather conservative estimate since most probably earn far more than $8/hour), would mean that taaxpayers need to shell out $1,560,000,000 more per year. That is one billion, five hundred sixty million dollars. Do federal employees really need this or is this another example of the government's inablity to do with less.