Pay Raise Kicks In

Beginning with the pay period that started Sunday (January 7), new federal salary rates have kicked in, reflecting general schedule raises that range by locality from 1.81 to 3.02 percent. Depending on agency payroll cycles, it could still be several more weeks before employees see any difference in their paychecks. The raise action results from a presidential order setting the average raise at 2.2 percent since Congress last year did not legislate a 2007 federal pay raise. Employee organizations continue to urge Congress to pass a retroactive boost to the raise, to the 2.7 percent average amount that was under consideration much of last year for 2007. However, chances of that happening appear poor, for a variety of budgetary and procedural reasons.