3.9% Pay Raise Signed Into Law
October 1, 2008
Yesterday, President Bush signed the Fiscal 2009 Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2638) into law. The measure would keep the government funded at current levels until March of 2009. Included in the bill was a provision that would give a 3.9% pay raise to federal employees.
Effective January 1, 2009 civilian employees will receive a 3.9% pay hike, a full 1 percent higher than that requested by President Bush in his FY 2009 budget proposal submitted to Congress earlier this year. The majority of the pay increase will go toward an across-the-board pay raise for civilian federal employees, with a modest portion allocated for locality pay. In all likelihood, 2.9 percent will go toward the base increase and the remaining 1 percent will be used for locality pay.
“I consider this to be a satisfactory increase for this year,” said Randy Erwin, NAGE Federal Legislative Director. “This one increase is not sufficient to eliminate the entire pay gap between the federal and private sectors, but it is a fair one-year increase, and it is significantly higher than the pay adjustment proposed by the White House.”