The Omnibus Appropriations bill for fiscal 2004 gives
245,000
federal civilian employees under the Federal Wage Survey a
3.9% raise, after a House provision linking FWS raises to
General Schedule and military raises, according to the
Federal Managers Association.
FMA advocates:
Guaranteeing annual wage-grade raises;
Lifting caps on wage-grade raises;
Raising wage-grade pay at the Department of Defense to that
of Veteran’s Affairs;
Using the federal salary council’s 32 localities to survey
and administer the federal wage schedule rather than the
current 113 localities and,
Shifting responsibility for data collection from the
Department of Defense to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
which already collects data for other federal pay systems
such as GS.