2010 Pay Raise with Locality Pay

12/09/2009

12/9/09: Last night, on December 8, the House Appropriations Committee announced agreement among conferees on the major spending package for Fiscal Year 2010, including the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, which includes the federal pay raise. The package provides funds to agencies whose budgets are set to expire on December 18. Under this bill, which will not be subject to amendment, federal employees will receive an average 2 percent raise. While NTEU is disappointed with this low amount, we were able to persuade the congressional negotiators to follow precedent and include locality pay for a portion of the raise. This translates to 1.5 percent applied across the board and .5 percent allocated to on the basis of locality. Earlier, President Obama had submitted his alternative plans calling for a 2 percent raise with no amount distributed on the basis of locality.

Pushing for locality pay was a close call for NTEU because we knew the overall raise might turn out to be low. However, it was our position that the inclusion of locality pay was critical because it reflects the goals of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA) and takes into account the varying pay gaps between federal pay and private sector wages. Every year since 1994 when FEPCA became effective, locality pay has been included in the pay raise. While FEPCA has not been properly implemented overall, NTEU believes the prospect of not providing locality pay—as the administration had proposed—could have set a dangerous precedent in our future pay efforts.

Like many of you, we are disappointed that the overall level was so low this year. While we didn’t achieve parity with the military, the administration has committed to submitting a budget next year that includes parity. We intend to hold them to that promise, and be assured that we will continue to push for this.