Defense Department announces new pay rates

The Defense Department on Wednesday issued a chart of the proposed pay rates for military personnel in 2002. The rates include a 4.6 percent across-the-board pay raise, plus proposed targeted boosts that increase the raises to between 5 percent and 10 percent. Military pay raises have yet to be approved by Congress. They would go into effect on Jan. 1. While the Bush administration plans to boost military salaries by at least 5 percent, White House officials are continuing to back a 3.6 percent average pay raise for civilian federal employees. Bush originally proposed the 3.6 percent civilian raise in his 2002 budget proposal, and has since reiterated his support for that figure in statements of administration policy on several appropriations bills. The House versions of the Transportation and Agriculture appropriations bills provide for a 4.6 percent average civilian pay raise, echoing a call for military-civilian pay parity in the 2002 congressional budget resolution. Military and civilian raises have been equivalent in 17 of the last 20 years. National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said Wednesday that she would push for pay parity. "In the competitive employment environment that is projected to continue, pay parity not only is the fair thing to do, it's the smart thing to do," Kelley said. The Bush administration contends that pay parity should not be automatically assumed each year, arguing that civilian employees have received several benefits improvements in recent years, such as pre-tax health insurance premiums, that military personnel didn't get. The proposed 2002 military pay table is online here.