On December 17, 2019, the House approved two appropriations bills to keep the government open, fund agencies for fiscal year (FY) 2020 and provide federal employees with a pay raise.
The bipartisan legislation provides for an average 3.1 percent pay increase (a 2.6 percent across-the-board pay increase and 0.5 percent increase for locality pay rates), which is on par with members of the military. This is a welcome departure from the administration's initial call for a pay freeze and later a 2.6 percent across-the board increase.
Read MoreThe EPA Inspector General investigates fraud, waste, and abuse, and defines "waste" as "extravagant, careless or needless expenditure of government funds, or the consumption of government property that results from deficient practices, systems, controls or decisions." The Office of Chief Financial Officer's roll-out of the latest PeoplePlus "upgrade" certainly qualifies. This new system caused thousands of wasted employee hours to accomplish what was previously being done in only a few minutes.
Our informal surveys of employees revealed dozens of hours of wasted time per employee just trying to accurately input time. We learned that many employees on flexible schedules were taking up to two hours to get time certified every two weeks. Assuming 20% of employees are on flexible schedules, that is approximately 5,800 wasted hours each pay period.....
Read MoreIf you haven't paid attention, we are actually getting a small cost of living adjustment this year, after many years of freeze or smaller-than-the-cost-of-living increases. While private sector professionals have been seeing significant pay increases since 2008, government employees have been burdened with pay freezes or, after calculating inflation, reductions.
But, surprisingly, the Trump Administration let the cost of living increases go into effect this year, while simultaneously threatening a future pay freeze. Here's the new salary table for the Washington, DC area....
Read MoreEarlier in the year the President announced a 1.0% across-the-board pay raise for federal General Schedule (GS) employees. Now, under different authority, the President transmitted to Congress his plan to provide an additional 0.6% average locality pay increase for federal GS employees.
In the Washington-Baltimore area, this means GS employees will receive a 2.02% pay raise after January 1, 2017.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the....
Read MoreMany of you know that you're eligible for long-term care insurance as a federal employee. The Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) helps you pay for care when you are ill, injured, or disabled. Long term care is care that you need if you can no longer perform everyday tasks by yourself due to a chronic illness, injury, disability or the aging process.
In the past, premiums were relatively stable. However, in 2010 the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) approved premium increases. On Tuesday OPM briefed NTEU's national office regarding yet another premium increase. If you have coverage, expect significant premium increases on November 1, 2016....
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