In a letter to Congress on Friday, the White House released an alternative pay plan for the 2022 federal pay raise for civilian employees.
In the plan, the president is recommending a 2.2% across-the-board pay increase raise for federal employees in 2022, with an additional 0.5% locality pay adjustment. The total average pay increase would be 2.7%.
Depending on what location the employees work, some may receive a lower or higher figure based on the final locality pay rates.
According to the letter, the pay “adjustment will take effect on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2022.”
Earlier this year, the White House proposed a 2.7% pay raise as part of the fiscal 2022 budget plan but it did not clarify how locality adjustments would be affected.
The recommended 2022 pay increase is a lift from last year’s 1.0% across-the-board hike. 2021 locality pay adjustments were frozen at 2020 levels.
“We appreciate President Biden’s desire to give federal employees a pay raise in 2022, especially one that includes an increase in locality pay rates,” the National Treasury Employees Union National said in a press statement.
“This is a vast improvement over the previous administration’s attempts to freeze federal pay,” NTEU said. “However, federal employee pay increases have lagged for years and there is still a very real gap between federal pay and comparable positions in the private sector. According to the Federal Salary Council, federal employees are paid 23.11 percent less than their private sector counterparts. NTEU believes that a 3.2 percent average raise is merited in 2022, as called for in the FAIR Act legislation introduced earlier this year. We will continue to urge Congress to implement an average 2.2 percent increase across the board, plus a 1 percent boost toward locality pay. ”
“President Biden’s alternative pay plan providing for a 2.7% pay increase in 2022 for federal employees is in line with his proposal earlier this year to provide a 2.7% pay adjustment for military personnel and civil service employees, also known as pay parity,” said American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley. “Pay parity recognizes the essential contributions that civil service and uniformed personnel make to our country, and we are pleased that the Biden administration has honored this principle.”
The official 2022 federal pay raise will likely be decided in December at which time the Office of Personnel management will publish the 2022 pay tables.