FMA APPLAUDS CONGRESS FOR DEFEATING MISGUIDED PROPOSALS ELIMINATING THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE PAY RAISE - May 28, 2010

Both House and Senate support giving feds a pay raise in 2011.

Alexandria, VA - The Federal Managers Association (FMA) commends the House of Representatives and Senate for defeating measures that would have eliminated the federal employee pay raise for 2011. FMA supports measures to save the federal government money without negatively impacting the very people who keep our government running.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted against an amendment that would have eliminated the federal employee pay raise for 2011 and redirect the estimated $2 billion towards the war efforts. Proposed by Senators John McCain (R-Az.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the measured failed by a vote of 50-47. FMA wishes to thank the fifty Senators who opposed this amendment, particularly Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Haw.), whose eloquent and poignant floor statement on the work of federal employees, and the negative impact the proposal would have, undoubtedly resonated with members of the Senate.

Today, Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) proposed the latest "You Cut" initiative for House consideration. The proposal would have eliminated a pay raise for federal employees in 2011. FMA is applauds the House for voting down this misinformed proposal. According to Bachman, cutting the pay raise would have saved the government $30 billion over ten years, but the figure is misleading as the proposal would only cut federal raises for one year, not the next ten. While the initiative may have been the "winner" of the You Cut program put forth by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), there were only five suggestions upon which people could vote, none of which looked beyond proposals Republicans have consistently included on their agenda and which have historically garnered little support in Congress.

"We at FMA wholeheartedly thank the Members of Congress who opposed these misguided and misinformed proposals," commented FMA National President Patricia Niehaus. "The President's aggressive agenda to redirect the nation on the path to prosperity places immense responsibility on members of the civil service, and their efforts must be recognized."

In recent months, several mainstream news outlets have called federal salaries and benefits inflated and unwarranted; a bandwagon on which some Members of Congress are jumping. By their own limited research, federal salaries are anywhere from twenty to fifty percent larger than comparable jobs in the private sector. However, more detailed and thorough research supported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that the public-private pay gap for comparable occupations continues to stand at roughly 26 percent. FMA encourages Congress to afford civil servants an appropriate financial adjustment in 2011 to close the gap, as dictated by law (the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, P.L.101-509). It is important to note that the annual pay raise for federal employees was not designed as a cost of living adjustment, but rather as a way to close the public-private pay gap in an effort to attract the best and brightest to federal service.

In his Fiscal Year 2011 Budget for the United States, President Obama supported a 1.4 percent pay raise for members of the military and civilian workforce. This is a modest raise, based on the Employment Cost Index (ECI) and lower than past pay raises. The House of Representatives went further in the FY11 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5136) by awarding the military a 1.9 percent pay raise. FMA has long advocated for pay parity for the two groups, and Congress has deviated from establishing parity only once in the last two decades.

"We at FMA recognize that the nation faces a political and economic climate focused on reigning in federal spending; however, in these times of economic uncertainty, federal employees are too often thrown under the bus, given their perceived job security and benefits," concluded Niehaus. "At a time when the American people are demanding more from the government programs upon which they rely, eliminating a pay raise would have only served to impair the delivery of these services. Federal employees work overtime to process the increase in unemployment claims, disability claims and the like, and cutting federal salaries ultimately benefits no one and hinders the government's ability to retain top talent. There are a myriad of other ways the federal government can decrease spending and save money without unfairly attacking its employees."