Federal Worker Pay Raise: Connolly Re-Introduces Proposal

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) on Tuesday reintroduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, legislation that would provide federal workers with a 3.2 percent pay raise. Northern Virginia is home to thousands of federal workers.

“For too long Republicans have bullied our federal workforce, falsely painting the civil servant as the scapegoat for all our country's problems,” said Connolly in an announcement about the proposed legislation. “They’ve endured shutdowns and furloughs, attacks on pay and benefits, and an across-the-board hiring freeze. Their hard work was questioned. Now, thanks to the Armageddon Rule, even individual positions could be on the congressional chopping block.”

“This is no way to treat a workforce," Connolly said. "The FAIR Act is a matter of justice. Federal employees work hard, serve honorably, and they deserve fair compensation."

The FAIR Act’s wage adjustment restores years of lost wage increases, representing the difference between last year’s 5.3 percent request and the Obama Administration’s 2.1 percent increase, Connolly's office said. This legislation would ensure that federal employees serving across the country, in all 50 states and on behalf of constituents residing in every congressional district, earn a pay increase of 2 percent, plus a competitive locality pay adjustment of 1.2 percent, for this coming year.

In reintroducing the legislation, Connolly pointed out in his announcement that"no other group in the country has been demonized, demoralized, and asked to sacrifice more than our federal workforce. They have endured a three-year wage freeze; five years without locality pay; wage-reducing furloughs, sequester cuts, a government shutdown, a federal hiring freeze, the reinstatement of the Armageddon Rule, and incurred more than $182 billion in pay and benefit cuts, all in the name of deficit reduction."

“These hardworking federal employees are our neighbors and friends who live and serve in communities across America,” said Connolly. “Contrary to alternative facts, 85 percent of the federal workforce live and work outside the National Capital Region.”

PHOTO of U.S. Capitol courtesy of Architect of the Capitol