Posts Tagged ‘budget in February 2012’
White House to propose a 0.5% Pay Hike for Federal Workers in its 2013 budget
By - Todd Genger
The White House will bring a proposal to increase pay of federal workers by 0.5% in its 2013 budget proposal. Federal pay was frozen in December 2010 when Congress approved the Barack Obama administration’s proposal to freeze federal worker pay for two years to reduce the deficit.
It is anticipated that the Obama administration will release its new budget in February 2012 and during the course of deliberating on the budget, the salary hike proposal will be presented before the Congress, stats Todd Genger.
Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union which represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, was disappointed at the size of the proposed salary hike. He said, “The good news is that the pay freeze is ending, but I am disappointed at the size of the proposed 2013 increase, shares Todd Genger.”
Randy Esperanza, an IRS employee based in Los Angeles, said, “When you put it into perspective, it’s so small it’s almost a slap in the face.” Randy Esperanza further added, “It’s always good to get a bigger increase,” he said. “But it’s frustrating because there are a lot of other things that could be cut out and are wasteful.”
The move of the Obama administration to increase the salary of federal employees is a step in the right direction, however in the absence of meaningful cuts to reduce the budget, further gestures will be needed to placate disgruntled federal employees and their neighbors.