Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and dozens of other House Democrats have reintroduced legislation aimed at giving federal workers a pay bump, after they saw pay freezes or small increases over the last several years.
Connolly’s new Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act, or the FAIR Act, proposes a 3.9 percent raise to all federal workers, and a 1.4 percent increase in “lost locality pay.” That’s a total pay raise of 5.3 percent.
That’s significantly higher than the version of the FAIR Act Connolly proposed just last year. That bill called for just a 3.8 percent pay hike.
But Connolly said federal workers need more money because of past pay freezes they’ve already faced.
“No other group has been asked to sacrifice more than our federal workforce, who have endured years of pay freezes, increased retirement contributions, no locality pay, sequestration cuts and a government shutdown,” Connolly said Tuesday. “This bill is a down payment on trying to help restore some of the losses that have been incurred by our dedicated federal employees, and I hope demonstrates we value their public service.”
Connolly was joined by 32 Democrats who cosponsored his bill, including House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Md., who like Connolly has thousands of federal workers living in his district.
“I am proud to represent 62,000 federal workers who reside in Maryland’s Fifth District,” Hoyer said. “Our federal employees have faced furloughs and uncertainty because of a government shutdown, and they have contributed $138 billion toward deficit reduction. These employees deserve to be compensated fairly for the critical work they perform every day for our country.”
Many of the other Democrats supporting the bill are in Maryland and Virginia, where many federal workers live. Read Connolly’s bill here:
