Federal Employee Pay Raise

A recent Resurgent Republic poll revealed that the American people are increasingly fed up with the perpetually growing salaries and benefits enjoyed by federal employees. Not to be deterred, federal employee unions continue to beat the drum for another round of federal pay raises at a time when the private sector is experiencing unprecedented levels of unemployment to the tune of nearly ten percent. This week’s winning YouCut proposal would put a stop to the next round of raises.

President Proposes Another Pay Raise For Federal Civilian Employees:

As part of his FY 2011 Budget submission President proposed raising federal civilian pay by 1.4% beginning in January of next year. This will be on top of the 2.0% raise federal civilian employees received this past January, the 3.9% raise they received the previous January, and the 3.5% raise they received the January before that.

Freezing federal civilian pay at the current level for one year would save approximately $2 billion next year and $30 billion over ten years.

Federal Employee Unions Say It Isn’t Enough:

"We are going to work very hard with Congress to adjust the 1.4% pay raise upward," said AFGE National President John Gage. "...a 1.4% pay raise will do nothing to close the remaining pay gap between federal and non-federal salaries."

"I believe that all federal employees, whether civilian or military, are deserving of a fair pay raise. [NTEU] will work with our military colleagues and members of Congress in an effort both to ensure parity continues and to explore possibilities of increasing the amount as the White House proposal moves through the legislative process." - NTEU President Colleen Kelley.

Federal Employee Pay Raises Outpace Private Sector:

According to data compiled by the Congressional Research Service, since 2000 Federal Civil Service pay has increased by 40.6%. Over that same period average wages in America for all workers only increased by 34%. President Obama has proposed an additional 1.4% pay raise for federal employees beginning in January.

Even Bigger Disparity During The Recession:

The growth of federal salaries compared to average wages in America has been even more pronounced during the current recession. Since 2007, federal civilian wages have increased by 9.7% while overall average wages have only increased by 6.7%, which means federal employees have received pay raises over 40% bigger than the increase in average wages.

Federal Employees Make More Than Their Private Sector Counterparts:

USA Today recently compared the pay of federal employees with their counterparts in the private sector. They found that average federal salaries exceed average private-sector pay in 83% of comparable occupations.

Benefits For Federal Employees Far Exceed Those In The Private Sector:

The figures above only tell part of the story. They fail to include the value of benefits; such as health care and pensions. Chris Edwards of the CATO Institute used data from the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis to compare wages and benefits for federal civilian employees with those in the private sector. Once benefits are taken into account, federal civilian employees received on average $60,000 more in pay benefits than the average private sector employee in 2008.