Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) yesterday led 62 members of Congress in urging the House Committee on Appropriations to include a 5.1 percent 2023 federal employee pay raise in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill.
The proposed pay raise is higher than the White House’s proposal of 4.6% made last month. Connolly also introduced a bill in January, the FAIR Act, which required a 5.1% federal pay raise for 2023. Groups represented federal employees — such as the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, the National Treasury Employees Union, and the American Federation of Government Employees — have also pressed for a higher pay increase than the White House has proposed.
In a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations on April 26, the members of Congress wrote:
“Throughout the pandemic, civil servants performed the essential work of the federal government under the most extraordinary circumstances “Federal government employees risked exposure to COVID-19 to deliver mail, collect census responses, provide healthcare to veterans, distribute lifesaving stimulus benefits, inspect meat and poultry facilities, and help research therapies and vaccines for COVID-19.
Unfortunately, the federal government has a history of chronic underinvestment in its most valuable asset: the federal workforce. The Biden Administration has worked to reverse these trends, providing federal employees a 2.7 percent pay raise in 2022 and removing prohibitions the previous administration placed on union operations and resources.
…Currently, only 7% of the federal workforce is under the age of 30 while the civilian labor force enjoys nearly three times that number,” they wrote. “In 2020, the Federal Salary Council stated that federal employees make an average of 23.1% less than their private sector counterparts. With almost a third of the federal workforce eligible to retire in five years, we will face a talent crisis if we fail to make basic investments in federal pay that will attract early career talent to federal government service.
Our nation’s dedicated civil servants deserve respect and fair compensation. We respectfully ask that you provide a pay increase of 5.1 percent for all federal employees in the FY2023 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill.”
To read the full text of the letter, go here.
The final 2023 federal pay raise figure won’t likely be released until December with pay tables from the Office of Personnel Management. Getting to that figure is usually a lengthy process involving both the White House and Congress.