The annual process of setting the following year’s federal pay raise has started on a familiar path, with President Bush recommending a smaller raise for federal employees than for uniformed military personnel, and with employee organizations and some members of Congress calling for parity between the two groups at a level higher than even the proposed military figure. The White House budget proposal for fiscal 2009 seeks a 2.9 percent federal raise next January and 3.4 percent for the military. As in several past years, those raises reflect an employment cost index number—the full amount for the military, and a half-percentage point less for federal workers. In many—but not all—past years in similar situations, the military raise was boosted to a half-percentage point above the ECI figure, which would yield a 3.9 percent January 2009 raise if that pattern repeats, and the GS raise was set at the same amount, with 1 percentage point of the total federal raise carved out for locality pay and the remainder paid across the board. Wage grade employees for many years have received raises equaling the local GS amount, and there are separate pay systems for white collar employees above the GS level.
