Good news, bad news on the federal pay front

This being Washington, the good news and bad news are often the same thing. The difference is the spin put on the news, the way it’s presented and our own perception that determine whether the same item is good or bad news.

Today’s good news is that some ordinary, apolitical federal civil servants, in D.C., San Francisco, Houston, New York City, Los Angeles, Houston and other places make almost as much money as the people they voted for (or against) to represent them in the House and Senate.

Today’s bad news is the same thing: Even with pay freezes and peanut pay raises in so-called good years, the top salary for career civil servants is now $155,500, compared to $174,000 for members of the House and Senate who do not hold leadership posts. That doesn’t bode well for federal workers getting bigger (catchup) pay raises this year. Or next. Or the year after that. Is Congress going to let itself fall behind pointy-headed bureaucrats in the pay raise? I don’t think so.

There are at least two reasons Congress has denied itself pay raises over the last half dozen years. One, probably the big one, is politics. A congressional pay rise is always a risk, which is why when they happen, Congress always labels them as cost of living adjustment, seven though they may be far more than the inflation rate. Most recently, it was deemed wise not to get pay raises while the country was slowly recovering from a major recession and while the jobs market was anemic and unemployment remained high. There’s also another reason Congress has denied itself recent pay raises. And it’s a very good reason, which is ….

Many Washington-based politicians simply don’t need the money! More than half the members of Congress are millionaires. Many, if not most, made the big bucks before getting elected. Proving they are (or at least at one time were) good at something. But the real heroes, the ones we should identify with, are those who have managed to get into the seven-digit category while in office. Or shortly after leaving. How do they do it? Tupperware? Summer jobs? Good investments? Whatever, we ordinary citizens applaud them. Don’t we?

The reality, for rank-and-file federal workers, high-grade employees and members of the Senior Executive Service is that no matter whose survey shows what (you are overpaid, underpaid, whatever), your future pay raises are going to be modest (when you get them) in the extreme. Congress is now looking at a 2017 military pay raise of between 1.6 percent and 2.1 percent. The House is pushing for the higher amount. President Barack Obama recommended a 1.6 percent raise effective next year for civilian employees.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

If you were to take $1 million in $100 bills, you could make a neat stack measuring 12 inches wide by 12.5 inches deep by 4.3 inches high.

Source: PageTutor.com

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