House Subcommittee Supports 3.5 Percent Pay Increase for Civilian Workers in Fiscal Year 2008

Washington, DC – Yesterday, a key House subcommittee voted to give federal civil service workers a 3.5 percent average raise in fiscal year 2008.  This move echoes the actions made in both the House and Senate to give military personnel that same rate of increase next year.

The raise was part of an annual appropriations bill put together by the Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government.  The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-NY).

The subcommittee’s decision is likely to be accepted by the full House and Senate, largely because lawmakers have shown they prefer a policy of “pay parity” between military and civilian workers when increasing the salaries of government workers.

Last month, the full House voted to adopt the 3.5 percent increase as part of the FY08 Defense authorization bill.  The vote was 397-27 in favor of the bill.  On May 24^th, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the bill, which also contained the 3.5 percent increase.  The Senate version of the bill has not been debated or voted on by the full Senate.

The White House proposed a 3 percent raise for both civilian and military personnel in the FY08 budget submitted to Congress.  The administration has been solidly opposed to the additional 0.5 percent increase for the military, and is likely to oppose the civilian increase as well.

“There is still a significant pay gap between federal civil service workers and the military,” said NFFE National President Richard N. Brown.  “This pay raise is necessary to ensure that the federal government will be able to recruit and retain quality workers.  We applaud the subcommittee for maintaining pay parity.”