President Joe Biden has added a 5.2% wage increase for federal employees in his budget for the fiscal 2024, which starts October 1st.
This is the largest wage increase from the White House since the Jimmy Carter administration in 1980,.
That pay increase was 9.1%.
The 2024 budget “answers the President’s call for agencies to lead by example in supporting federal worker organizing and collective bargaining,” said the White House, according to a report from the Federal News Network.
If approved, affected federal workers will see their pay increase by January 2024.
Several stakeholders have differing views on the proposed wage increase.
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) stated that a 5.2% raise in 2024 would be a “solid first step,” but the federal union is still calling for the larger pay bump included in the FAIR Act.
Commenting on the budget overall, nonpartisan think tank The Century Foundation noted that it will have a beneficial impact on all working- and middle-class Americans, and particularly people of color, low-income people, disabled people, women and other disadvantaged groups.
“This budget shows that the Biden administration is committed to protecting Medicare and Social Security, full stop, including proposals to strengthen the vital social insurance programs by closing loopholes and increasing taxes only on the wealthiest earners—reasonable reforms that the public and economic experts alike overwhelmingly support,” it said.
However, James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, criticized the move.
“Now President Biden is continuing to ensure that federal workers’ pay and benefits are insulated from the price tag of inflation, but it will be paid for by American taxpayers who continue to be harmed by the Biden administration’s inflationary policies,” Comer said in a statement, according to the Federal News Network. “We should be putting American taxpayers first, not the federal bureaucracy.”
