Pay Parity Passes Congress

06/06/2008

6/6/05: On June 5, 2008, the House passed S. Con Res. 70, the FY 2009 final budget conference agreement with pay parity language intact. The House had included the NTEU-backed pay parity language in its version of the bill; however, the Senate had not included it. At NTEU’s urging, the final package included pay parity and has now been passed by the House and Senate.

This is important because on May 22nd, the House passed the Department of Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 5658) with the 3.9 percent military personnel pay raise included. NTEU has joined the military in supporting that level and is fighting for the same 3.9 percent level for federal civilian employees. As we have reported earlier, the administration requested a pay increase of 3.4 percent for the military and only 2.9 percent for federal civilian employees.

Now that the budget resolution is in place, the appropriations committees can begin to move their bills. The Subcommittees on Financial Services of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees who have jurisdiction over the federal employees pay raise are expected to mark up their bills soon. Be assured that NTEU will continue to fight for a 3.9 percent pay raise for federal employees in keeping with our longstanding support for pay parity.