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Thursday, March 10, 2016

Sen. Cardin backs ‘justified’ 5.3 percent pay raise for feds next year

Add Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) to the list of congressmen calling for a higher pay raise for federal employees in fiscal 2017. Many feds could avoid the ongoing battle over locality pay locations, he said, if Congress approved higher, across the board raises.

“Locality pay doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Cardin said during a March 7 town hall meeting with employees at the Food and Drug Administration. “It doesn’t. There are people who live in higher cost areas that are not getting that than people who live in the areas that are getting it. What we’re trying to do is get a review of this in an objective sense to make the pay more realistic to the needs.”

Cardin addressed a question from one employee who moved from Houston, Texas to Maryland to work for the FDA. In Houston, he received a locality pay adjustment. But he doesn’t get one in Maryland, where the cost-of-living is much higher than it is in Texas, he said.

The Federal Salary Council voted in November to change some of the criteria for studying and adding new locations as federal locality pay areas. The Federal Pay Agent added 13 new locations in the fall, bringing the total number of locality pay areas to 47.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it is an election year, politicians like to give other peoples money away for votes.

Concerned Retiree said...

I pay taxes on my SSI as a Senior Citizen. Does they make me a Government worker since I am receiving a legit government check? I say it does so where is my 5.3% increase in this legislation? I believe I deserve this 5.3% increase since I paid in to this program and the Government confiscated my money in return for a government check.