Federal employee unions responded angrily to President Obama’s decision to freeze federal workers’ pay for two years, saying government workers have become an easy target at budget time. White House officials said freezing pay for 2 million civilian federal employees would save $2 billion in the current fiscal year and a total of $28 billion over five years. Uniformed military personnel are exempt from the freeze.
“This is not just a line item on a federal ledger. These are people’s lives,” Obama said. “I’m asking civil servants to do what they’ve always done — play their part.”
Obama’s announcement comes just before a bipartisan deficit commission is expected to release recommendations for trimming the federal government’s $1.3 trillion deficit, including a proposed freeze of federal workers’ pay.
Union leaders denounced the freeze, saying it was a politically expedient decision and would have little impact on the federal government’s staggering financial problems.
“A federal pay freeze saves peanuts at best, and while he may mean it as just a public-relations gesture, this is no time for political scapegoating,” said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Patricia Niehaus, a 27-year federal employee and president of the Federal Managers Association, said federal workers were told to expect a 1.4 percent raise this year.
“Now nothing for two years,” Niehaus said. “We are a common target and almost a helpless target in some respects.”
The nation’s 2 million federal workers earn an average annual salary of $71,000. In the Washington region, where a concentration of scientists, lawyers and other skilled workers drive up the pay scale, there are 372,041 federal workers earning an average of $94,047 a year. The average annual salary for the nation’s 108 million private-sector workers is $50,028.
While many workers in the private sector have seen little or no increase in their paychecks over the past few years, Congress generally takes care of federal employees, awarding annual raises of 2 percent to 3.5 percent between 2007 and 2010.
Obama early in his tenure froze pay for West Wing staff making over $100,000, which affected about a third of the nearly 500-member executive work force.
Republicans, many of whom have been calling for a federal pay freeze, were taking credit for the idea following Obama’s White House announcement.
The president’s announcement comes in advance of a report by the president’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which has recommended a number of politically painful cuts necessary to rein in federal spending, including a 10 percent reduction in the federal work force.
“Small businesses and families are tightening their belts,” Obama said. “The government should, too.”
