News

Obama raises pay for federal employees

by Bradford Richardson - 12/19/15 2:39 PM ET

President Obama on Friday issued an executive order to increase the salaries of federal employees by 1.3 percent in 2016, finalizing a yearlong process to give government workers a pay raise.

The order goes into effect Jan. 10 and will boost the pay of most federal workers by the amount listed, including uniformed military service members.

{mosads}Workers will receive a 1 percent raise across the board, and the other 0.3 percent will be paid in varying amounts based on locality.

Most areas will stay at around the 0.3 percent average, but workers in big cities will receive slightly larger pay bumps.

Congress remained silent about the percentage of the raise in the government spending bill that passed Friday, effectively granting the president latitude to determine the amount.

Obama stuck to the figure he advocated at the beginning of 2014, though federal employee unions had pushed for a higher number, 3.8 percent.

Government workers received a 1 percent bump in both 2014 and 2015, and their pay was frozen in the three years prior.

Tags Barack Obama