Dems Propose a 3.8 Percent Pay Raise for Federal Workers

originally posted by: NavyDoc


No. "Federal Employee" does not include the military.

Military compensation is actually getting cut across the board, including the highest ranking.
www.militarytimes.com... enefits/pay/2015/01/10/gfo-retirement-change/21387763/

www.military.com... 2014/12/02/congress-agrees-to-troop-pay-bah-cuts-in-budget-compromise.html

Almost always, civilian federal employees get the exact same raise as the military. If (and it's a BIG if) the 3.8 figure were to gain traction for FY16 (it won't) the military will get that figure as well.

a reply to: usernameconspiracy

You make excellent points as well and I whole-heartedly agree.

I am a Contracting Officer who also happens to be a Libertarian, so I am extremely serious about protecting the taxpayer's dollar. I moved to DFW a couple years back and I have a better bottom line for my family here than when I lived in northern VA (even though I took a grade decrease to move here).

My wife and I would have never been able to buy a place in DC (not going to pay half a million for a town home) but we own our own humble single-family home in a decent neighborhood here.

It is the bigger picture, macro-economic issues that are hurting us, which the fed-employee bashing doesn't address... Just because people like us realize this, does not mean we aren't critically aware that improvements need to happen (albeit they are generally required at the upper echelons of management)...

originally posted by: usernameconspiracy

originally posted by: NavyDoc


No. "Federal Employee" does not include the military.

Military compensation is actually getting cut across the board, including the highest ranking.
www.militarytimes.com... enefits/pay/2015/01/10/gfo-retirement-change/21387763/

www.military.com... 2014/12/02/congress-agrees-to-troop-pay-bah-cuts-in-budget-compromise.html

Almost always, civilian federal employees get the exact same raise as the military. If (and it's a BIG if) the 3.8 figure were to gain traction for FY16 (it won't) the military will get that figure as well.

Two different pots of money and spending bills. Very often the military and GS employees do not get the same raises. It happened several times when I was in.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Ceeker63

So, the worker bees are getting restless?

Thats a honey of an increase, too.. If they make thousand a week thats thirty eight dollars before taxes.

Whoopie, what an insult.

$38 a week by 52 weeks is $1,976
Thats nearly two extra weeks pay, would you turn that down?

I don't care if its a million. My soul isn't for sale…

Several House Democrats have introduced legislation that would give federal workers a 3.8 percent pay hike, a raise that would take effect in 2016.

Just in time for the elections !!!

originally posted by: NavyDoc

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
a reply to: Ceeker63

To be clear, aren't active duty Military considered federal employees? Therefore, the 3.8% raise would increase Military salaries too, wouldn't they?

I could be wrong, but a casual google search seems to indicate military are federal employees.

No. "Federal Employee" does not include the military.

Military compensation is actually getting cut across the board, including the highest ranking.
www.militarytimes.com... enefits/pay/2015/01/10/gfo-retirement-change/21387763/

www.military.com... 2014/12/02/congress-agrees-to-troop-pay-bah-cuts-in-budget-compromise.html

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. A shame the way the U.S. treats their troops, really.

a reply to: SonOfThor I would have loved to have been a GS9-GS14. I can live quite nicely on $60 to $115k a year. Most these people have cushy jobs and go to the office for 40 hrs a week. They are paided more than their counter parts in the civilian market. I do not recall the last time military and retiree's got a 3.8% raise. This year it was 1.7% that gave me a whopping $28.00 after tax.

a reply to: SonOfThor

Actually, no. It used to be that way, but lately, public employees are trending to make about 1/3 more than their private sector counterparts.

And when most private sector wages have stayed flat, they don't need to have a raise out of our static paychecks.

a reply to: ketsuko

Care to cite any statistics? All I am hearing are generalizations about "public employees making more".

I explained why the numbers were skewed. In Northern VA I was offered almost 2 times my salary when I was a GS-13 for a private sector job. There was zero job security though, and I did not want to be traveling 75% of the time away from my family.

My father is retired air force, and a nuclear physicist who graduated from MIT, and a career federal employee. As a GS-15 he has received offers for more than twice his salary to work for contractors / private sector as well.

My Ex - wife was a pharmacist - at CVS she would have started at six figures, but in the Government she would have started as a GS-11 with a PharmD, making around 72k.

Those are three specific examples. As for the quality of the workforce, I work with PhDs, JDs, and I have a masters degree with an additional 280 hours of Contract Law classes.

Do we need better management and accountability? Absolutely. Do we need to keep the quality folks and get rid of the slackers? Yup. I have seen these same issues in the private sector as well though, and I plan to do my part to change it once I get into a higher position in my career (one of the main reasons I am sticking around in the public sector).

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: SonOfThor

Actually, no. It used to be that way, but lately, public employees are trending to make about 1/3 more than their private sector counterparts.

And when most private sector wages have stayed flat, they don't need to have a raise out of our static paychecks.

Not even close, unless you throw in scientists. I could go to the private sector and make about $20k a year more than I do as a civil servant. I am perfectly happy with my job and salary, so I choose not to. We have people who leave all the time for private sector jobs, because...they pay better.

Does this mean I'll get a raise lol. I'm a mail man.

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
a reply to: Ceeker63

To be clear, aren't active duty Military considered federal employees? Therefore, the 3.8% raise would increase Military salaries too, wouldn't they?

I could be wrong, but a casual google search seems to indicate military are federal employees.

Civilian employees for the US Government are not the same as Military. They are the liaison between the Military entity and the civilian entity such as Government services, who they represent and civilian contractors. From what I have seen, most years provide a Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) increase. Sometimes the COLA is not increased, the US government calls a pay freeze.

originally posted by: Ceeker63
www.theblaze.com... ampaign=story&utm_content=dems-propose-a-3-8-percent-pay-raise-for-federal-workers This politician says federal workers have not gotten enough pay over the last 5 years to keep up with inflation. Well isn't just to bad. I do not believe they deserve a pay raise, overall. Individuals can advance if they do their jobs correctly. But not even our military or our seniors have gotten a 3.8% pay raise either. Those two groups of people deserve it more than slackers that work for the government. At least that is my opinion.

Holy #..can I get one too? Wait I do not work for the Government... damn

originally posted by: SonOfThor
a reply to: ketsuko

Care to cite any statistics? All I am hearing are generalizations about "public employees making more".

I explained why the numbers were skewed. In Northern VA I was offered almost 2 times my salary when I was a GS-13 for a private sector job. There was zero job security though, and I did not want to be traveling 75% of the time away from my family.

My father is retired air force, and a nuclear physicist who graduated from MIT, and a career federal employee. As a GS-15 he has received offers for more than twice his salary to work for contractors / private sector as well.

My Ex - wife was a pharmacist - at CVS she would have started at six figures, but in the Government she would have started as a GS-11 with a PharmD, making around 72k.

Those are three specific examples. As for the quality of the workforce, I work with PhDs, JDs, and I have a masters degree with an additional 280 hours of Contract Law classes.

Do we need better management and accountability? Absolutely. Do we need to keep the quality folks and get rid of the slackers? Yup. I have seen these same issues in the private sector as well though, and I plan to do my part to change it once I get into a higher position in my career (one of the main reasons I am sticking around in the public sector).

Good luck, it practically takes an act of Congress to fire an incompetent someone that has already been tenured into the Government services.

Often when a government services worker doesn't know how to do something. He/she will get a contract worker to do it for them. So they don't look incompetent.

Dems Propose a 3.8 Percent Pay Raise for Federal Workers

I agree with the hell mother snippin uhn uhn.

That's a NO from the house of no, and twice on Sunday's.

Please keep in mind a large percentage of those workers are WG (hourly wage) or gs-2 through 5 making less than 40k a year. (location can change the numbers)

The salaries everyone gets bent out of shape over are not the norm.

As a WG 10 step 3 I made about 45 k a year.. As a bonus I gave up 1 weekend a month for work and was tasked to deploy once a year pretty much, as an air reserve technician... So yes military personnel would also benefit from this.

originally posted by: tkwasny
Every federal employee, budget, contract, dept., agency should be getting a 1% CUT every year along with a 100% tax and revenue generation source freeze at current rates. It's called the "Penny Plan" and it will work 7 years down the road getting this to not only a balanced budget (0 deficit), even start working off the debt.

The Penny Plan is a 44.5% cut to federal expenditures, of all the budgeting plans out there it is one of the most extreme, it's just phrased in a way to sound like a minor change. What happens is that you miss the 3.32% inflation rate every year as well as institute a decrease in spending. Here's a small chart to show you the difference.
............Penny.......Normal
Year 1 - 95.68% 103.32%
Year 2 - 91.36% 106.75%
Year 3 - 87.04% 110.29%
Year 4 - 82.72% 113.95%
Year 5 - 78.40% 117.74%
Year 6 - 74.08% 121.65%
Year 7 - 69.76% 125.69%

Overall diference: 1-(69.76/123.24)=44.5%

No other plan proposed by anyone, even budget hawks like Paul Ryan, or even Ron Paul who wanted to dismantle the federal government has suggested anything as extreme as cutting the budget by nearly 50% over just 7 years. The reason no one in Congress seriously considers this plan is because it is quite literally insane.

originally posted by: SonOfThor
a reply to: Ceeker63

I agree that there is massive amounts of fraud, waste, and abuse that needs to be fixed. I also agree that there are a lot of overpaid, underqualified, inept people in civil service. However, there are also a lot of extremely well educated, highly qualified positions that skew the salary numbers to a higher level.

Hear me out - think about all of the nuclear physicists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc. that work in civil service. They generally have positions that are GS-09, 11, 12, or 13, making about 60k - 115k depending on years of experience. In many markets (such as southern california or northern virginia) those salaries are barely enough to cover the cost of living. They could make more money in the private sector, but generally the trade off is job security for a lower salary.

As for the effect of inflation on the salaries, the economics of it show that they actually have been taking pay cuts overall when inflaiton is considered.

People complain about care for our veterans for example, but the VA is way understaffed (especially with doctors and specialists) and are having trouble hiring / keeping people in these positions. They can get paid more outside the Government and don't have all the red tape to deal with, end result being lower quality care for our veterans.

The most egregious waste comes from the imperialist statist corporatism perpetrated by the finance industry and the military industrial complex. Salaries of civil servants aren't even a drop in the bucket compared to what it costs to maintain our empire. The worst offenders are the private sector contractors who make absurd profits from federal contracts, as a result of this corporatist structure.

I think the anger here is highly warranted, but misdirected. Again, that is just my personal opinion.

I worked for the VA for 4 years as a GS-9 in the IT field. After taxes I got about 40K a year (about 5 years ago)

You are very correct many government employes put in a lot of work for money we get. There is a lot of waste in our government also. I personally have no problem working for the VA or DOD, which I believe fall directly under the ideas of the Constitutions. (IE national defense and caring for the people that served.) I also believe that there are many agency that need to be scraped because they don't fall under federal mandate and should be handled by state or local government. (IE Dept of Education being a big one.).

Most GS workers will never see 100K a year in their life. It is very true that I could get paid a lot more in the outside world. (I have in fact.) I like serving my country and supporting our military and veterans. Also as you stated the stability is a little better then most jobs, but not like it use to be.

originally posted by: STDContractors
As a federal blue collar employee, believe it or not, I do not take dumps on a gold toilet at home, nor do I drive the latest and greatest 5 mpg SUV. I've been a federal employee for 5 years now and have recieved a total of $1.51 per hour in raises the last five years. I've also recieved a lovely furlough package twice. Things are not all hunky dory in my workplace. And I know, it could be wayyyy worse.

Been there done that.

That 3.8% would about equal out to my furlough last year.

Oh; and all of us don't get those fat bonus checks like they talk about in the news. I got a $700 one a few years ago and then... 0

My personal opinion is that if you work for the government, you are part of the problem. And it isn't surprising at all that our "leaders" wish to keep the turncoats happy. While I know I'm a bit extreme in my loathing for our government, those who "feed" it are allowing it to continue it's rule and control over us all. The US government is my (or our) enemy.