It may not be much comfort to you, but along with the 4.1% pay raise for federal employees, the pay raise for Congress is also blocked.
Federal employees will eventually get a 4.1% raise. But since the $373 billion spending package has been delayed in the Senate, the raise will have to be made retroactively. As a result, the federal raise on January 1st will be the 2% approved by President Bush some months ago. (See the link on the left for our original article on the 2% raise that was proposed by President Bush.)
Members of Congress will receive a lower increase than federal employees. They will get a 1.5 percent pay increase on Jan. 1 rather than the 2.2 percent they would get when the bill becomes law. Most of them make a little more than most of our readers though as their current salary is about $154,700.
By law, members of Congress get an automatic annual pay raise unless they vote to block it. Their raise is linked to a portion of the increase received by federal employees.
