http://www.zerohedge.com/news/obama-proposes-05-pay-increase-federal-workers



America may be $25 million away from breaching the interim debt ceiling, it may have well over 40 million people subsisting on food stamps, and we may be reading all about this "austerity" thing gripping the country, but it sure won't be impacting Federal workers, all millions and millions of them, if Obama has his way. According to Washington Post, the White House will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees as part of its 2013 budget proposal, according to two senior administration officials familiar with the plans." Well as long as the president is adamant about increasing taxes on what is left of America's upper middle class (and let's not forget that half of America pays no taxes at all) to pay for this, we see no way that this proposal will irritate the class-war divided United States even further. And yet we can't help but wonder: why a pay increased? Haven't we been brainwashed day after day how the only threat is deflation, that prices are not going up, that nobody actually needs food or gas, and that people should in fact be grateful for a pay cut?

More:

The modest cost of living increase in federal compensation would be the first pay jump for federal workers since before President Obama ordered a two-year freeze in late 2010.



The proposal, which would require congressional approval, differs from Republican plans supported by lawmakers and presidential candidates that would freeze federal compensation for at least one more year.



But, “a permanent pay freeze is not an acceptable policy,” one of the senior administration officials said Friday. “While modest, a .5 percent increase reflects the belt-tightening we must do in these difficult times.”



The officials were unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter, but added that the White House notified agency budget offices about the decision Friday morning so that agencies could complete their 2013 budget requests.



The White House is expected to formally unveil its fiscal 2013 budget proposal in early February.

Oh course, take away money from the military since they are not part of his voter base and give it to others who are or can be with some persuasion.

I won't vote for him, but don't hold your breath waiting for me to write a check back to the Treasury.

Kharn

How many servicemen are getting fired this year?

Wow, that is certainly a surprising turn of events, isn't it?

Two years with 0% raises and a third year with a 0.5% increase.  I'm not saying it's right, but it certainly could be worse.

Are they going to jump off the gravy train if they don't get their 0.5%?

I think not.

Yeah I'm sure the Private sector workers who for the most part haven't gotten shit for 4 years and had their Health insurance cost explode or disappear entirely will understand completely.

A spade is a spade, this is nothing but vote buying.

Depends.  I can tell you that the DoD is losing some high quality R&D engineers becuase of this.  I know this, 'cause I'm hiring them!  The average annual raise for people in my field is still about 3.5% and if you do the math, the feds are missing out on quite a bit of cash.  The irony is, of course, that they quit the .gov and go to work for a contractor and still do work for the 'gov, they just get paid more for it.  This doesn't apply to every field, but it's true in some.

The pay freeze is not a freeze, it is a Cut.

The cut is bullshit.  The vast majority of fed workers don't make high salaries and work hard at what they do (Federal Agents, Customs Inspectors, ect.)  The cost of living in the US continues to go up, thereby decreasing the actual value of the salary they recieve.  By not matching inflation with a pay increase, you cut the salary of those workers.  

That is bullshit.  

The private sector ridiculed gov workers when the private sector was rolling in big bucks and now that the private sector is sucking wind, they want to cut gov salaries.  Sure...no double standard there

People want to complain about the quality of gov workers...WTF kind of workers do you expect to get for the crap pay that is offered for the entry level jobs?  Now with no pay increases?  Yeah...great way to attract tallent.  

You get what you pay for.  

Oh...and before anyone starts on the benifits BS, you can look at the FEHB health plan online...it sucks.  I had better health coverage as a local LEO.  Retirement...LOL...1.5% with restrictions.  

Bashing fed workers is class warfare to distract the idiots from the real problems with entitlement spending.  Nothing more.

Vote buying with 0.5%?  Are you fucking kidding?

Most of the ones in NOVA do.

And VA will be a battleground state this year.

DoD isn't only losing them, it can't attract them in the first place.

I was offered a DoD IT position last year, at $20k less than I was making as a contractor.  Pass.

So then there's no reason to do it right?

I'm a fed employee, and really don't care or really need a .5% pay raise as it is so minimal. But please spare us with the notion that just bacause Obama will grant us a little more money we will all become liberal Democrat voters. Most of the fed. workers I know are conservative/Republican. Our official Presidential portraits aren't even in our office. They are in the hallway leading to our front door.

0.5% increase is a slap in the face after not having any increase in several prior years. That certainly doesn't outpace inflation.

 

Do it because it is the right thing to do.  Your employees are your most valuable resource.  Thus far, it cost the USG roughly 250K to train me to do my job...probably more if you totalled up the training from other agencies I had to attend.  

My pay has not risen to match inflation while my kids tuition went up...healthcare premiums went up...copay went up...inflation like crazy in my area...

My wife and I were discussing it and we are getting to a point where it just doesn't make sense to stay with the .gov if we have to struggle to afford a house in a decent school district, drive an old crappy car, never eat out, ect.  This with two married people with Masters degrees who have both been gainfully working their entire adult life.  

My career has taken priority as I made relatively good money...but that is not going to be the case if my salary doesn't continue to rise.  Lots of people in this same situation and you could see a serious drain of experienced people if things don't change.

No... the reason to do it is because the .gov workers have had a freeze for two years, and if their pay remains frozen, then the only ones still working for the .gov will be useless fucks who can't work anywhere else. I was a DoD engineer for 19 years, and I was pretty much always paid less than my contractor countrparts.  I stuck it out (and a lot of .gov engineers stick it out), because they have a sense of duty to their country.  But that can only carry you so far.  For me the cutoff was when I was makeing 15% less than my private counterparts.  I left the .gov and went to work for a contractor.  I still get paid 100% by the .gov through contracts, but now I make 20%+ more than my .gov counterparts.  You're still paying for it, you just don't see in the salary of the GS folks. Frankly, the DoD has fewer and fewer technically competent engineers and program managers, becuase so many of them leave for private industry.  And becuase there's fewer and fewer technically capable engineers and managers, the .gov contracts out more and more of it's work.  You're still paying for it... but it makes you feel better saying you froze the salaries of those "greedy" .gov workers.

I'm seeing the opposite trend in DC.

I know a lot more people who've gone government lately than leave for contracting jobs.

ETA: Just a note:
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/06/obama-touts-federal-worker-pay-freeze-that-isnt/

Just saying... I'm a senior level engineer, but still very much a "working engineer."  I make more than most of the GS-15's I work with.

I thought President Obama declared he was going to declare a spending freeze pretty soon back when he pivoted to the economy for 1 day during the 18 month obamacaid shenanigans? Guess not. lmao