Pay & Benefits

  • Financial Planner Art Stein and Federal Times Senior Staff Writer Stephen Losey join host Mike Causey to talk about a number of issues affecting federal workers. April 24, 2013

    April 24, 2013
  • Senior Correspondent Mike Causey wants to know: If I chopped a couple of bucks off each of the future cost-of-living adjustments made to your federal retirement or Social Security benefits would you even notice? Or, would you pick up the fact that over time that is a lot of money that you will never see.

    April 24, 2013
  • The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board says offering federal employees an extra loan option through their Thrift Savings Plans to cushion the impact of furloughs would require too much effort to implement and may not help the employees all that much. Several federal-employee unions have lobbied the board to add a second general purpose loan option to help cushion the blow of furloughs. But at a Employee Thrift Advisory Council meeting April 22, the board quashed the idea, citing the complexity surrounding the changes.

    April 23, 2013
  • A week after the bombings in Boston and the catastrophic explosion in Texas, key federal agencies have unveiled or are refining their plans to furlough tens of thousands of workers, including those who protect the country and those who collect the money to pay the bills, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. And this makes sense because...

    April 23, 2013
  • A trio of lawmakers from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee want the Government Accountability Office to examine whether the General Schedule system for federal employees needs an update. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), said the watchdog agency's review would aid the lawmakers in evaluating "the appropriateness of the General Schedule (GS) as a pay scale for today's workforce."

    April 22, 2013
  • Politicians first said it couldn't happen, then that it shouldn't happen and, finally, we were assured it would never happen. One problem, it -- sequestration-triggered furloughs -- did happen. Not as quickly as some predicted. But they are with us, as federal agencies juggle their finances, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    April 22, 2013
  • Advocacy organizations are criticizing the Pentagon's proposed fee increase for TRICARE as unfair and discriminatory.

    April 19, 2013
  • Some of your finest hours come at a very low point. The Boston bombings have brought out the best in the federal government, which is on the front line in this case. So maybe it's time, at least for a little while, for a moratorium on fed-bashing, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    April 19, 2013
  • Furloughs are still on the radar, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. But are they getting any closer? What are your odds of working four-day weeks this summer?

    April 18, 2013
  • Financial Planner Art Stein and Federal Times Senior Staff Writer Stephen Losey join host Mike Causey to talk about a number of issues affecting federal workers. April 17, 2013

    April 17, 2013
  • Federal, military and Social Security retirees would receive smaller benefits in the future if the government switches to a new yardstick to measure inflation. How much would it cost you? Maybe more than you think, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    April 17, 2013
  • President Barack Obama's proposal to change the way retirees' cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated has drawn the ire of federal-employee groups and unions. The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) has released a calculator designed to show retirees and policymakers how benefits would be reduced if the chained CPI were implemented.

    April 16, 2013
  • Elected and appointed officials are exempt from sequestration-related furloughs. But now that President Barack Obama has voluntarily taken a 5 percent pay cut, odds are many of the people he appointed to their jobs will also follow suit. So what do rank-and-file federal employees think? Check out Senior Correspondent Mike Causey's column for more.

    April 16, 2013
  • When sequestration was proposed, politicians said it would never happen. It did. When it triggered furlough warnings, some said they would never take place. Except they are happening right now, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    April 15, 2013