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                         March 12, 2004

President authorizes remainder of federal raise

By Kathy Eastwood
Staff Writer 

President Bush issued an executive order Wednesday officially releasing the rest of the 2004 percent average pay raise for civilian employees.

Congress passed the raise in its 2004 omnibus appropriations bill, which Bush signed into law Jan. 23. The raise could not go into effect, however, until the president issued the executive order to implement it. Federal employees have been receiving a portion of the raise (2 percent) since January.

The order labels 2.7 of the 4.1 percent raise as an across-the-board raise and 1.4 percent as a locality increase.

Bush originally sought a 2 percent pay raise for civil servants and a 4.1 percent pay raise for military personnel. In January, Congress rejected that formula and provided both civilian and military personnel with a 4.1 percent increase.

The American Federation of Government Employees Thursday issued tongue-in-cheek praise for the order.

“AFGE is glad the president finally found the time to pay the people who work for the public good every day,” AFGE President John Gage said.

 Wage Grade employees will receive as much as a 4.39 percent increase because of congressional action to give blue-collar employees pay raises for fiscal 2004 that are comparable to those given GS employees.

Actual increases will vary based on surveys of private-sector rates in a given pay area. The increases will be retroactive to the normal effective date for pay raises, which varies by area. For example, the effective date for the Washington-area wage schedule is Oct. 19.

The president and a group of supporters in the House are locked in a battle with pay-parity advocates over the 2005 raise. They are proposing 1.5 percent for civilians and 3.5 percent for military. The Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Don Nickles of Okla., has already included language in the budget resolution requiring equal pay raises for military personnel and civil servants.