2006 DoD, DHS Raises on Schedule

In the last two budgets, the appropriations panel has specified that all employees of both the Defense and Homeland Security departments must the same January raises applying to federal employees in general, even though both departments are in the process of moving to reformed pay systems that will feature pay for performance and pay banding. The panel might craft such language again for January 2006, although it appears that would happen in any event. The first group of DoD employees affected will move into the new system in about six months, but Pentagon officials say they want to have employees go through at least one full year ratings cycle before applying the new system to their pay. Thus, officials expect that even those employees will get the same January 2006 increase as other employees. Employees in the first phase might get a further raise sometime later in 2006 to be paid out under the new system, although the raise cycle is not yet set. Similarly, at DHS the first group of employees, about 10,000, is to start under the new performance management system this fall, but the first raise reflecting the new system won’t come for them until January 2007.