Mike Causey

How Safe Is Your Job?

In these tough economic times it pays to work for Uncle Sam. While feds are hoping for a bonus Dec. 26th holiday, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey points out th...

Federal News Network Staff

December 5, 2008 4:00 am

4 min read

The answer to the how-safe-is-your-job question depends on what you do and where you do it. And whether it is in or out of government.

If you are in IT, banking, financial services, manufacturing, retail, construction, real estate or you work in the auto industry, you have good reason to sweat. Millions of folks in those fields, and others, are waiting for the other shoe to drop. They are wondering when/if they will learn that their company is downsizing, going out of business or merging with a competitor whose first order of business will be to trim/slash the staff.

Auto workers are talking about pay concessions to keep the American auto industry (which has much higher costs than U.S.-based Japanese companies) afloat.

County and state workers all over the country are agreeing to, or talking about accepting pay cuts or foregoing promised 2009 pay raises so they can keep their jobs.

For feds, taking a pay cut or getting a pay raise, isn’t an issue. Congress approved and the President signed (some time ago) a 3.9 percent raise for most white collar civilian federal workers. Blue collar (wage grade) employees, will get a similar increase.

The civilian pay raise will go into effect, because it’s the law, effective with the first pay period in January. The only question is what feds will get once city-by-city locality pay raises are computed and announced. That usually happens in late December.

In the past, presidents have typically allocated one percentage point of the national pay raise to locality adjustments. This year (January 2008) that resulted in Washington-Baltimore based feds getting the biggest raise for a total of 4.49 percent. Workers in San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose got 4.23 percent. The lowest increase for feds this year was 2.96 percent for the Indianapolis area. The raises are computed under a system understood by only a handful of sane people. They are based on a complex formula that takes into effect wage changes for similar private sector jobs in the private sector. Living costs (which determine COLAs for retirees) are not a factor. For a look at what the locality raises were this year, city-by-city, in pdf format, click here. Remember these are the actual 2008 raises. The 2009 schedule is yet to be announced.

Bonus Day

Despite the sour economy (which seems to get worse with every news bulletin or government report) for much of the country, federal workers are doing fine. At least so far.

Feds around the country are eagerly awaiting news that they will get Friday, Dec. 26th off as a bonus holiday. It is not a done deal yet and it isn’t guaranteed. But in the past when Christmas day fell on a Thursday, presidents, including President George W. Bush, have given nonemergency workers an extra day off. For the background on that, click here. And keep your fingers crossed.

By contrast, the State of Maryland is proposing at least two days of furloughs (time off WITHOUT PAY) for state government workers. According to the plan, the highest paid workers (those making $60,000 per year or more) may be furloughed for up to 5 days. Those making less than $40,000 that amount would “only” lose two days of pay, starting with Friday the 26th. For more on that, click here.

So how safe is your job? Federal and postal unions supported president-elect Barrack Obama. And they are counting on him to cut the number of contractors while protecting the civil service. Will that happen? Who knows?

But unions had the same hopes when President Bill Clinton took office. He surprised a lot of people by attempting a federal pay freeze, and then by eliminating more than 250,000 federal jobs and requiring federal agencies to out-source many so-called “overhead” jobs in HR, budget and the like.

Nearly Useless Factoid

A recently discovered sketch proves a long held rumor: the U.S. Mint once considered turning out a $100 gold coin. The Wall Street Journal reports a forgotten sketch of the proposed face of the coin was recently discovered at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Nice thought, but at the time, one of those in your pocket would weigh your pants down enough to make you look like a skateboarder. Guess that’s why they never minted it.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com