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Biden’s historic pay raise for federal workers set to take effect
(www.washingtonpost.com)
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this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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That’s a good raise, and the govvies I’ve worked with over the years deserve it.
It’s still far too small to stop the perpetual brain drain from federal agencies to government contractors. It’s going to take a lot more than 5% to keep good people in place when they can double their salary overnight by joining a contractor.
There's a lot more than salary that's keeping me from taking a government job. When Biden was elected I checked for jobs in my field and they all involved moving to DC. No remote work at all.
So even if they paid the same I'd have to move to a very high COL area, or commute some insane distance. And I'd need to buy a whole new wardrobe. But they very much didn't pay the same. And in my current role I already work with a lot of different government agencies and contractors.
That being said, I think giving 2 million people a 5% raise is definitely going to boost poll numbers by easing the collective pinch a bit, and as the child of a former federal worker I can appreciate how significant that is.
I think it's highly dependent on your field. If you work for departments like the IRS, the FBI or the TSA, you could do your job from many possible places because the first two have a lot of field offices and the third is at every commercial airport. I believe this raise also applies to postal workers, who are in every incorporated area in the country.
This makes me curious on if those departments actually hire remote workers often. It appears it’s not often
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/hiring-retention/2022/09/irs-pilot-considers-expanding-remote-work-amid-hiring-challenges/
They are only just piloting remote work programs at this point.
That’s a small fry compared to their near 80k workers
Well, yes. Its hard to investigate something from a distance that's not entirely online or financial. Even then, physical evidence is at a place you'd need to go to. And for police, we do want them in the jurisdictions they're policing.
It's that including locality pay?
As I understand it, it's a 4.7% base level increase, with an additional average of 0.5% across all locality areas. So some will see an actual raise of over 5.2%, some less. But on average, it'll be about 5.2%>
It's not just salary for government workers. We get great benefits and strong unions. Also you know what your going to be making
Health insurance… mother fucking health insurance.
The FEHB is some of the best health insurance there is…. I know folks who are only still doing their fed job to continue access to the great insurance.
And you get to keep it for the rest of your life if you retire. I believe you pay the premium through your annuity.
You are correct
Strong unions yet it's the president that decides to give a pay raise? I don't know how your union works but over here our raises are included in our collective agreement and the government can't decide to not give them to us...
These raises that make the news are the cost of living adjustments or the COLA. They happen annually at the beginning of the calendar year and are intended to adjust salaries for year over year inflation. It’s not related to any sort of performance or merit based pay increases.
Ok but I'm talking about annual pay increases that are part of the collective agreement and negotiated with the union, not performance or merit pay increases...
Sorry for the delayed response, you do realize that as a government employee or employer is the government, right? It's obnoxious some years but our union fights to make sure our rights are protected. For instance Uber Trump he wanted to institute a ton of anti union things such as I cannot talk to my union rep on government time and property even though the office is located in the building.
I'm a government employee in another country, our pay increases are part of our collective agreement and even if an anti union government is elected they have no choice but to give us the salary increases included in our agreement. Our chief of State has no power to prevent it.
Hell, salaries are one of the most important parts of a collective agreement!
That's fair and it's more steps to other than just the president saying ok, but I have to deal with the system I'm in. It's still better than most other unions in the states. The trump years we only saw like a 2% CoLA which was barely noticable. There needs to be a huge legislative overhaul for real. I'll still take the cheaper health insurance with a great 401k deal in the meantime. I am so frustrated with my country.
"It's still better than most other unions in the states."
Didn't the auto unions just end their strike? Because Ford's just negotiated 25% over the next 4.5 years, that's predetermined increases that they company has to deal with no matter who's the CEO...
I think your union might not be as strong as you think...
Pay is not the only factor.
No but it's the one we're talking about now and it's a major one. You can have great conditions in general, if you can't afford to live where your job is because the last government that cares about its employees was elected 8+ years ago, you quickly realise that your union failed to protect you.
Are the unions still strong? When SCOTUS ruled against mandatory membership for public employee unions a few years ago I thought they might take a hit.
The enrollment rate is pretty high, I'm pretty sure it's close to 85% in my area.