Re: 2009 Federal Pay Increase

I'm a GS6 and want to thank the Union for it's efforts in lobbying efforts for the lower grades, too.
The gentleman who is worried about fairness to the GS14's and 15's will probably enjoy his pay increase much more than I will.
Keep up the wonderful work with the Union. Thank you for everything you do for us.

Re: 2009 Federal Pay Increase

Instead of whining about how much better paid the GS-14's and 15's are than you, why not put your energy into advancing into their ranks? I know plenty of 14's and 15's who started their careers as 5's, and I even know an SES who started as a GS-2! Believe me, this kind of advancement is a lot easier to achieve in the federal government than in the private sector. Sure you'll have to drop the negative attitude and you might even have to (gasp!) go back to school and earn a degree or two, but it could be worth your while. Put up or shut up.

Re: Shouldn't the raise mean something?

The Annual Pay raise is not, repeat not a COLA.

This may be the year that people who call pay raises cost-of-living increases learn, the hard way, that the two are very different animals.

In the world of government, pay raises are not cost-of-living adjustments, and COLAs have nothing to do with how a federal pay raise is calculated.

If inflation continues to creep up over the summer, federal and military retirees will get bigger raises next year than their on-the-job counterparts.

This year, by contrast, federal retirees got a 2.3 percent COLA in January. The 300,000 plus civil servants in the Washington-Baltimore area got a pay raise worth 4.49 percent. But that was then, and this is now.

What hasn't and won't change is the fact that pay raises have little, if anything, to do with living costs, while retiree increases are totally linked to the inflation rate.

Federal and military pay raises are controlled entirely by Congress and the White House.

Re: Shouldn't the raise mean something?

DOS Admin. When I was hired into Civil Service back in 1981, it was called cost of living increases. In fact it was advertised that we would receive as many as two a year, but in reality, we were lucky to get one. Somehow over the years, the cost of living increase was modified to something called the employment index which I believe reflects the salary levels of what the market will bear.

Re: Retirement

My advice? Learn how to spell &
communicate effectiively!

Re: Retirement

Prog Mgt at ISRA, maybe you should learn to spell correctly before giving advice to others.

Re: Retirement

That is too funny! Putting someone down for their spelling abilities and screwing up your own while doing so! Thanks for the laugh!

Re: Retirement

I guess it takes won to know one. Or, should I use the word, "one"??? :-)

Re: No more lobbying?

Obama might be against lobbyist but what concerns me is the Democrats views to provide everybody is the USA FEHB. I thought we had health insurance, paid for it and the rest subsidized by Uncle Sam because we work for Uncle Sam. Looks like we'll end up not only paying for our insurance but our taxes will go up too to pay for everybody else who refuses to purchase their own. The money the government saves by NOT giving us a COLA will be used to provide health insurance to all. Besides, each year when we get an adjustment our health insurance goes up anyway so we really end up with nothing. Soon we'll be in the negative because our taxes will go up to support this FEHB program. Ugh

Re: Federal Pay Raise

I just hope they will abolish NSPS come November 2009.

This is someone's idea of saving Government money while screwing the backbone of civilian workforce GS-9 thru GS-13.

We all will be leaving our jobs for the private sector or contract jobs.

Re: Federal Pay Raise

You clearly have an us vs. them mentality that colors your judgment when it comes to assessing how you are rewarded for the quality of your work. It all comes down to percentages, not absolute values, so the only ones getting "screwed" are the poor performers. You're probably looking at absolute values, which is misleading.

If 60% of everyone's pay raise goes into the pay pool, then keep in mind that 60% of the pay raises for the "higher-ups" goes into that same pool. That's a larger amount than the part of your pay raise that goes into the pay pool (absolute value-wise). Regardless, once ratings get established, it gets divvied up and awarded again as a percentage of your base pay, which is only fair since the amount contributed to the pay pool was some percentage of base pay, too. The "5's" get a larger percentage of their base pay given back to them from the pay pool, while "2's" get a smaller percentage.

My advice: start performing at a level that merits higher ratings.