Raise Formula Might Be Extended

The House Armed Services Committee has said it is “inclined” to extend a special raise formula for military personnel that in recent years has had the effect of boosting annual raises for civilian federal employees. Under a law passed in 1999, military raises for 2001-2006 are set a half-percentage point above the employment cost index measure of private sector wage growth. In recent years that provision effectively has been the federal employee pay-setting formula since parity has been maintained between federal and military raises while a separate law that is supposed to set federal employee pay has largely fallen by the wayside. The panel said in a report that the pay gap between military and private sector personnel likely won’t be eliminated by 2006 and that it may be necessary to extend the provision. But it said that action now may be premature and for the meantime it ordered the Pentagon to produce a report on a long-term plan for military pay.