Many Angles on Raise, as Usual

By recommending the same raises for both military and civilian personnel, the budget will change the terms of the debate, since “pay parity”—the idea of bringing civilian raises up to the level of uniformed raises—will not be an issue this year. Instead, the focus will be on whether the increase is adequate and whether the government can afford to, or should, pay more. Federal unions already have denounced the 2.2 percent figure as failing to keep employees apace with inflation—even though the federal raise is not linked to inflation, but rather to private sector labor market conditions. Also, advocates of higher pay for the military want to link military raises to a different indicator, which presumably would produce higher increases for uniformed personnel, and potentially for federal employees in the name of pay parity. Whether agreement on such a system can be reached this year in time for setting the 2007 raises is questionable. In the meantime, Congress might revert to the previous military pay-setting practice, which would make 2.7 percent the target figure for 2007.