President Clinton Thursday approved a 3.6 percent average pay raise for federal civilian employees and military personnel next year, and will propose a 4.4 percent increase for the following year.
"Today, the government operates more efficiently and better serves the American people," Clinton said in announcing the raise. "This success would not have been possible without government employees who have been called upon to work harder and to do more with less."
Federal employee organizations, who had asked Clinton to endorse a 5.8 percent raise for next year, were quick to denounce the President's proposal.
"Rather than honestly addressing the growing pay inequity between the federal and private sectors, President Clinton has thumbed his nose at the federal work force by urging Congress to approve a pay raise that actually worsens the current pay gap," American Federation of Government Employees President Bobby Harnage said Wednesday.
In an effort to mute such criticism, Clinton not only announced next year's raise, but also recommended a 4.4 percent average increase for the year 2000 well in advance of when such proposals are typically announced.
The two increases together would amount to the largest federal pay increase in nearly two decades, administration officials told the Washington Post. "We wanted to keep [federal employees] even with inflation," a senior administration official told the paper. "They've done a good job."
Federal pay raises are divided between an across-the-board increase and locality pay hikes that will vary in metropolitan areas around the country.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has already approved a 3.6 percent pay raise for federal employees in 1999, and the entire Senate will vote on that proposal when it reconvenes in September. The House approved President Clinton's original proposal of a 3.1 percent raise. The final figure will be determined in conference. But even if the House and Senate fail to agree on a raise figure, the President will be able to implement the 3.6 percent raise under provisions of the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).
Employee representatives are frustrated because the President's raise figures, like previous proposals for annual increases, do not follow the formula for gradually closing the gap between federal and nonfederal pay laid out in FEPCA.
Clinton has avoided the FEPCA requirements each year by citing a section in the law that allows the President to waive the higher increases during times of "severe economic conditions." No definition of such conditions was included in the FEPCA legislation.
Federal workers would need a 13 percent pay average increase in 1999 to comply with FEPCA.
"It has been frustrating for us to have to tell our employees that while our nation is looking at a $60 billion budget surplus and enjoying the strongest economy in a generation, we are unable to live up to our policy of paying America's workforce comparable pay for comparable work because of 'serious economic conditions'," Federal Manager's Association President Michael Styles said in a recent letter to Clinton.
"The proposed 1999 raise sends a disappointing message to hard-working federal employees about the perception of the value of their efforts on behalf of their fellow Americans," National Treasury Employee Union President Robert Tobias said.
In an Aug. 6 letter to the Federal Salary Council, the three administration officials charged with setting federal pay policy said the formula for setting federal raises needs to be fixed.
"The administration, under the leadership of the Office of Personnel Management, is committed to developing a credible alternative to the current annual pay adjustment process," OPM Director Janice Lachance, Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jacob Lew, and Labor Secretary Alexis Herman wrote.
The changes to the formula are at least two years off, the administration said.
Next year's raise will take effect the first pay period of January 1999.
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