So far during the Biden administration the White House has stuck with the pay law’s indicated figure, which is 5.2 percent for 2024. Image: Mega Pixel/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe first formal proposal for the 2024 federal employee raise has been introduced in Congress for 8.7 percent, an amount that sponsors say would help catch up federal employees for years of under-paid raises.
The Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act, or FAIR Act, would be “a critical step toward recognizing their contributions and providing fair and just compensation,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., the main sponsor in the House. Federal employee unions endorsed the figure on those same grounds.
In recent years Connolly and several other Democrats have annually proposed a raise in advance of the President’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. Most typically, their proposal had been for a half-percentage point above the raise indicated by federal pay law.
So far during the Biden administration, though, the White House has stuck with the pay law’s indicated figure and that amount has taken effect by default each year as Congress has not legislated a number. Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal 2024 is expected in mid to late March.
The pay law’s indicated raise for 2024 is 5.2 percent, which itself would be the largest raise since the 9.1 percent of 1980. The average 4.6 percent paid effective January 1 this year was the largest since 4.8 percent was paid in 2000.
With Republicans who have made limiting federal spending a priority in control of the House during this Congress, however, enactment of a raise even in that range likely would prove to be a significant challenge.
Under the bill, the raise would average 8.7 percent but as has been common practice, it would be split. A 4.7 percent increase would be paid across the board, while funds equal to an additional 4 percent would be paid on top of that in differing amounts by locality. That would result in raises ranging by locality from several tenths of a percentage point below 8.7 percent to several tenths above.
The 8.7 percent figure would match the COLA adjustment paid to CSRS retirees at the start of this year—the figure for FERS retirees eligible for COLAs was 7.7 percent—although the two types of increases are not formally linked.
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