The Biden administration wants to give federal employees their largest pay raise in nearly 20 years, according to multiple media reports.
The Federal News Network (FNN) reported last week that the White House will propose an average 4.6% pay increase for federal employees as part of its fiscal 2023 budget request.
FNN obtained a copy of The Office of Management and Budget's annual "passback" guidance that told agencies to plan for the raise, and included more funding to account for the additional salaries and expenses.
The Washington Post on Thursday reported that military service members would also receive the pay raise, which would go into effect in January.
The Post, citing senior officials at two federal agencies, said a 4.6% pay increase would be the largest since 2002, when the workforce received the same increase. A 4.8% raise in 2000 was the largest since 1981.
Federal raises are expressed in terms of averages because they typically are divided into two parts: one paid across the board and another component that differs among about four dozen city areas.
The salary proposal received early endorsements from congressional Democrats and federal employee unions, the Post said.
Democrats already have unveiled legislation in the House and Senate — sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii — seeking an average 5.1% raise for federal employees next year.
The 4.6% pay increase will be part of President Joe Biden's budget to be proposed in March, the Post reported. The budget covers the 2023 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, though raises are paid in January.
The pay hike would follow an average 2.7% raise that took effect last month for 2.1 million executive branch workers. Biden proposed that last year, and it took effect by default after Congress took no position on the increase by the end of December.
The 2023 proposal would mark the second straight year that Biden relied on guidance from a federal pay law that calls for tying raises to the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department index of private-sector wage growth.
The Post said Biden's approach underscores the administration's close partnership with unions, whose collective-bargaining power in the federal government is limited to working conditions, not wages, which are determined by Congress.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh this week led a White House task force that made dozens of recommendations to federal agencies to embrace union organizing and membership, both inside and outside the government, the Post said.
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