Boost Comes at a Cost

While the annual federal pay raise battle commonly is a long and hard-fought one, the process for setting the 2003 increase was exceptionally lengthy and difficult. While supporters of the higher figure once again managed to maintain parity between federal employee and uniformed military pay, it came at the cost of requiring agencies to absorb the costs of the increase. While that has been done many times in the past with little noticeable effect on agency operations, the absorption requirement could hit harder this time. The amount of money involved is greater, agency overhead budgets from which the raise must be paid already are stretched, and the budget measure further imposes other across-the-board cuts in spending that must be accommodated. The twin requirements already are raising the prospects that agencies will impose hiring freezes and cut travel, training and other overhead expenses and that some may have to resort to furloughs or layoffs.