Pay Raise
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President Biden on Thursday issued an executive order implementing his plan to provide civilian federal workers with an average 5.2% pay raise next month.
As first proposed in his fiscal 2024 budget plan last March, the increase amounts to a 4.7% across-the-board boost to basic pay, alongside an average 0.5% increase in locality pay. As authorized in the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which Biden is expected to sign this week, military service personnel also will see an average 5.2% pay raise next year.
An average 5.2% pay increase marks the largest authorized for federal workers since the Carter administration adopted a 9.1% average raise in 1980, as well as a 0.6% increase over last year’s raise, which itself marked a 20-year high.
On top of the historic pay increase, tens of thousands of federal employees will see a slightly larger increase than expected, thanks to a slew of recent changes in the locality pay system. Last year, the President’s Pay Agent, a body made up of Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, approved the creation of four new locality pay areas. And the body finally adopted plans to update the map of locality pay areas using new OMB data, adding dozens of counties to existing locality pay areas.
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Lads, you don't understand how this works.
Each permanent Federal job has a wage scale. I included the one for the Birmingham area, assuming it's close to the bottom. These guys get a step increase annually, bi-annually or tri-annually depending on years of service. This 5.2% comes on top of any scheduled merit raises.
Oh...Most of these guys NEVER stay at the GS level they are hired at. Progressions of two levels are common within a single job series. Change jobs, such as moving into management, and the ball can start all over again.
