In 2002 when the total also was 4.6 percent but 1 percentage point was used for locality pay, raises varied from 4.52 to 5.42 percent. Image: iomis/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffPresident Biden has reaffirmed his intent for a 4.6 percent federal employee pay raise in January, meanwhile saying he would split it as 4.1 percent paid across the board and with the funds for the other 0.5 percentage points used for locality pay.
Biden stated that intent in a letter to Congress that is a routine but needed step when Congress has not enacted a raise figure into law by the end of August. In almost all cases, as in this one, the late-August letter has repeated the raise proposal Presidents originally made in their early-year budget message to Congress.
The letter sets an “alternative” raise to be paid by default should no raise figure be enacted into law by year’s end — alternative to the increase that otherwise would take effect automatically under the 1990 federal pay law. That would be about 22 percent, based on the Federal Salary Council’s recent report on the private/federal sector pay gap.
Breaking off part of the raise for the locality component would result in raises varying among localities. In 2002, for example, when the total also was 4.6 percent but 1 percentage point was used for locality pay, raises varied from 4.52 to 5.42 percent. With only 0.5 percentage points used for locality pay, the variation in 2023 would be somewhat narrower.
Congress still could change that outcome by putting a different number—such as the 5.1 percent total that federal employee organizations advocate—into legislation, which if signed by the end of the year would override Biden’s action. However, by remaining silent on the raise in a spending bill it already has passed, the House effectively endorsed the 4.6 percent figure as a default. The Senate counterpart bill, which has not advanced to even committee-level voting, also is silent.
Both chambers meanwhile have moved to set 4.6 percent as the 2023 raise for uniformed military personnel. By long-standing practice, the federal raise does not exceed the military raise although there have been years in which the former was brought up to the level of the latter in the name of “pay parity.”
Also under long-standing practice, the GS raise figure is paid to wage grade employees in a GS locality zone even though they are under a separate locality-based system. Raises for federal senior executives and certain other career employees at senior levels are based on performance ratings, with the GS raise lifting the caps on their salaries.
Raises would be finalized by a late-year executive order and would take effect at the start of the first full pay period of 2023. For most employees that will begin January 1 (in a rare occurrence; leave years typically begin sometime within the following two weeks).
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