Federal Employee Pay Raise 2023 : Biden Letter Likely Next Step Toward 4.6 Percent Fed Pay Raise

The White House’s proposal for a 4.6% pay increase for federal employees in 2023 has been effectively supported by the House because it was not mentioned when the 2023 budget bill was passed last week.

The White House’s 2023 budget proposal from March included a general 4.6% wage increase for civilian personnel. The budget proposal does not specify how the 4.6% increase would be split between locality pay and the general average pay rise.

Due to the House’s lack of action, the White House compensation plan will virtually take effect for the upcoming fiscal year. A president’s salary scheme must be actively resisted by Congress. With its version of a 2023 spending plan, the Senate might offer its opinion on the subject in August.

Biden Letter Likely Next Step Toward 4.6 Percent Fed Pay Raise

Although it is uncertain when they will take up the proposal, lawmakers must still debate and change the House appropriations bill on the floor before passing the legislation. Additionally, Senate appropriators are likely to draught and pass their own version of the legislation in the Senate. Additionally, despite the fact that some Senate Democrats would also favour a greater pay hike, Senate Republicans might try to lower it by using their increased clout as budget bills now require 60 votes to pass.

The White House must take numerous extra steps to ensure that Biden’s pay raise proposal is implemented in January even if Congress doesn’t take any further action to change it.

First, by the end of August, Biden must formally announce an alternate pay plan. The action is essentially ceremonial, declaring a financial crisis that forbids the federal government from implementing automatic pay hikes as specified in the Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act. Presidents have utilised this authority for many years to stop sizable automatic increases in locality pay for federal employees from taking effect.

The formal alternative pay plan would also specify how much of Biden’s proposed 4.6% pay rise would go toward an increase in locality pay on average.

After that, before the year is up, Biden must issue an executive order to complete the compensation plan so that it may be put into effect for the January first pay period. The president’s pay agent, a group made up of the Labor Secretary, the directors of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Office of Management and Budget, must produce new basic and locality pay tables as a result of that executive order, which confirms the basic pay increase.