Federal Employees’ Wages Rise

Starting in January of 2016, thirteen cities across the country will see a significant bump in salary for federal workers. This plan has been steadily moving along since May 2013, but now it finally has a date on which these changes will take place. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has recorded data that shows the pay for federal employees in these cities lags significantly behind the average payments of employees in the private sector and in local governments.

The cities that are affected by this bill are: Albany, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Colorado Springs, Co.; Davenport, Iowa; Harrisburg, Pa.; Kansas City, Mo.; Laredo, Texas; Las Vegas, Nev.; Palm Bay, Fla.; St. Louis, Mo.; and Tucson, Ariz.

“The administration is committed to ensuring the federal government remains competitive in attracting and retaining the nation’s best and brightest individuals for public service,” said an official from the Office of Management and Budget. This makes sense as these cities are home to some of the largest demographics of federal employees. The government cannot keep running if no one wants to work for them, so they need to keep up with the times and offer competitive rates and benefits to their employees.

With phased retirement finally starting to actually be put into practice, the federal government is starting to show they appreciate the value that longtime-employees can bring and the knowledge they can pass down. Now, with this bill, the government is showing they see the value in all their employees. Federal employees’ pay wages have been rising at a significantly slower rate than those of the private sector but remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

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– Carol Schmidlin, Founder