How much of a pay raise will federal employees receive in 2011? The debate is already beginning with the submission of a 1.4% suggested pay raise for the military in 2011. It is unlikely that the civilian pay raise will exceed any raise for the military so the starting point in negotiations for next year is 1.4%.
“Openness in government” may be a matter of form over substance in some cases. Here is what author Bob Gilson found when searching through the new datasets posted by the FLRA in its attempt to meet the President’s commitment “to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”
A VA Medical Center employee was fired for, among other charges, brandishing a knife, but he argued it was a “utility utensil.”
The days of ignoring your Thrift Savings Plan are over, at least if you want to have some hope of managing for positive returns.
The widow of a federal employee who missed having 10 years of creditable federal service by thirteen days, has now lost before the appeals court on her bid for a survivor annuity benefit under FERS.
Some financial planners believe that a survivor annuity is a good choice, while others may encourage you to forgo a survivor annuity and to purchase life insurance with the money you “saved” by not electing a survivor annuity. Here are several considerations.
Federal agencies have the authority to hire retired federal employees without a reduction in their federal pension benefit. There are requirements that must be met by agencies and restrictions on the hiring authority.
Memo from OPM notifying agencies they may begin using newly enacted legislation to begin hiring retired federal employees and outlining the requirements for using this authority.
As we near or enter retirement, another aspect of retirement that may become part of your agenda is caring for aging parents.
Health care has been in the forefront of the news recently despite having to compete with an economic recession and military conflicts overseas. The good news: Federal employees and retirees have been spared from bearing some of the initial cost of reforming the health care system in one of the health care proposals still floating around.
