Pay Raise, Part Two

Thanks to last-minute action by Congress, white collar feds will get a bigger January raise than the 3 percent hike authorized by President Bush.

Last month, the OPM published pay tables (which we also carried) showing the impact of the raise after city-by-city locality differentials were figured in. We told you at the time that the chart was accurate but that it wasn’t necessarily the final word. The issue was whether Congress would pass an Omnibus spending bill that included the higher (3.5 percent) raise, and, if it did, if the President would sign it.

Bottom line: They did and he will!

The pay raise goes into effect with the first pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2008. For about-to-retire feds, most of their unused annual leave will be paid at the new, higher 2008 rates.

Under the original White House plan, the largest concentration of federal workers (those in the Washington-Baltimore area) would have gotten a 2.49 percent increase in January. But once the Omnibus bill is signed into law and after locality pay is factored in, most of those 300,000 feds will get a 4.49 percent raise. That extra percentage point will also boost the value of their life insurance, their eventual retirement annuity and the value of their annual leave.

The new pay tables will be posted on the OPM website soon. The old tables, for comparison, are still available by clicking here.

Meantime, here’s an estimate of what the raises will be for selected cities:

Chicago, 3.65 percent… Dallas-Ft. Worth, 3.72 percent… Huntsville, 3.07 percent… Los Angeles, Sacramento and Seattle, 3.5 percent… San Francisco, 4.23 percent… San Diego, 3.91 percent… San Diego, 3.9… New York City, 3.97 percent… and Richmond, 3.39 percent.

Feds who are in what is called RUS (which stands for Rest-of-U.S.) will get an estimated 2.99 percent.

The Nearly Useless Factoid
Today, it’s completely useless for those who follow The Federal Drive, but in case you missed it, someone has actually gone to the trouble to list the Top Ten Worst Christmas Cracker Jokes Ever and the London Daily Telegraph has gone ever further by publishing the list. If pushed, we could probably explain what a “cracker” is (according to Brits), but we’d be hard pressed to explain British humour. They did say these are the worst. Enjoy!

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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