Obama to Freeze Pay for Most Federal Workers (for 2 Years)

NYT ^ | 11-29-10 | Peter Baker

[pillut48]

WASHINGTON -- President Obama plans to announce a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers later Monday morning, according to an administration official, the latest White House move intended to demonstrate concern over sky-high deficit spending.

[bareford101]

NO GOOD - THEY are already making 10 times their worth!! Time to go back to salary of ten years ago!!

NO GOOD!!! obamanation is BLOWING SMOKE for the masses

[TribalPrincess2U]

Translation: “I’ve already increased the federal payroll extravagantly, so I can afford to freeze it for two years until after the next election.”

EXACTLY...and it makes me look like I'm really trying to help Americans.

[MikefromOhio]

Are ytou saying that Fed. Govt. ret. empl. gets SS? I don’t think so....they get WAY more than SS.

If a Federal Government employee is retired at this point he/she either has a pressing medical concern to be retired OR opted out of Socialist Security when they hired in.

[meyer]

The FERS system has the employee paying social security premiums at 7%, plus the Federal Government pays an automatic 1% in the Govt. 401(k) plan [called Thrift Savings Plan] but it will match up to 5% of what the employee contributes in their 401(k). So an employee can put in 5% and the Govt. will match the 5%. This is very similar to big business where the Company provides matching contributions. Heck, even my parents and their small business did something similar.

thanks for the info. TVA (which some may not know is a Federal agency) has its own retirement system, TVARS. They also have a real 401K, operated by Fidelity. There is a match up to a certain amount, but I don't know what that is. Probably fashioned similar to FERS, but separate (separate but equal, interesting concept). Reagan was trying, at the time, to spin off or privatize TVA but congress wouldn't go along with that. I think he was setting it up as a self-sustaining entity, which it mostly is these days.

[PLMerite]

“These must be those low wage federal workers who need to be punished for voting Republican.”

Probably those in DoD.

[Help!]

They did NOT institute FERS because the CSRS system had a problem. They instituted FERS in order to SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY by putting millions of Federal workers as new payers into that (still failing) system. CSRS was doing fine.

[CanaGuy]

You raise salaries across the board in the first year, sufficient to weather a 2-year freeze, and THEN you freeze ‘em. Voila! It looks like you’re doing something! One of the oldest Washington tricks in the book. Slimeballs.

[USNBandit]

The biggest problem with this whole discussion is that Obama and his minions have yet to match orders of magnitude between the annual deficit and his proposed cuts. Freezing federal pay will save $60 billion over 10 years. When we are running trillion plus dollar deficits every year, saving $60 billion over ten doesn't mean squat. Taxing the rich, using his numbers, only saves $700 billion over ten years, when he blew more than that on his failed stimulus plan.

[Americanexpat]

I agree 100% and until they put a spending freeze in place at the same time they are doing all these budget cuts we are peeing in the wind.

[Americanexpat]

I will believe they are serious about this crap when they get the labor unions under control. The unions have done more to cause jobs to go overseas and inflate wages than anyone else.

[Getsmart64]

generous benefit package

Generous my azz....as a gub'mint employee...I pay for my benefits....the system helps with those benefits but they are FAR from generous....

[redhead]

Did you hear the caller to Rush’s show today? The “wages” are not actually being frozen. In a nutshell, if an employee gets moved up a step within his GS range, he gets his increase as long as it is accompanied by an increase in “step.” (At least, I believe this is what the caller was saying...)

[FromLori]

More http://www.zerohedge.com/article/obama-freeze-government-salaries-all-time-high

[OldGoatCPO]

“Freezing the current rates guarantees they will be grossly overpaid for the next two years.”

Judy, just who are the “they” you are talking about? Would that be the fed employee working at a daycare “grossly overpaid” at $8 per hour or the retail clerk making $7.50 per hour. Their pay just got frozen, obviously to your delight.

Rush Limbaugh who prides himself on his research has his head up his arse on this one. Like people on this site that think this is so good Limbaugh has no clue how the fed system is setup. In many fed jobs people earn less than or equal to a Wal-Mart employee, they are called WG, WS, NS, NF and some GS. They just had their pay frozen. The vast majority of the “they” you refer to do not make as much as an assembly line worker at Ford. The “they” are professionals from the trades, medical profession, law enforcement and former military personnel with very specific training, not common in the public sector. “They” have to maintain all the same professional certifications as their private sector counterparts; many jobs require a degree along with specific training and years of experience in non –private sector systems and familiarity with hundreds of federal regulations and rules. The “they” are nurses, laundry workers and hospital orderlies, retail clerks in post exchanges, janitors, teachers, police, pilots, technicians and landscapers. Many professional could make more money in the private sector, but choose for various reasons to work in the public sector.

Many of the “they” serve in combat zones along side the military or Dept of State and are compensated for their risks. Obama has indiscriminately, with your approval frozen all federal pay. I am sure you have guessed that I am a federal employee. I have a graduate degree in my field and I have over 30 years of experience in my field. I do make slightly more than a private sector position I was offered. The additional compensation was directly related to the grad degree I worked so hard for. The civilian sector position did not require a degree. My federal job required a degree. Millions of us provide vital services for the military and federal police agencies at a fair compensation. The unintended consequences of this pay freeze will be more contractors, a decrease in service and more unemployment.

[OldGoatCPO]

Rush is an idiot and so is his caller. Millions of Fed employees ARE NOT “GS” employees. There are NO steps in the majority of Fed jobs. Only a GS position has steps. Obama’s freeze will freeze merit pay for all non-GS employees most who make less than an assembly line worker at FORD.

[OldGoatCPO]

Obviously you are not a fed employee, I am, I pay more for my benefits than my wife who is a nurse for a private sector clinic. I can not believe this crap on a conservative blog.

[OldGoatCPO]

Obviously you are not a fed employee, I am, I pay more for my benefits than my wife who is a nurse for a private sector clinic. I can not believe this crap on a conservative blog.

[OldGoatCPO]

Obviously you are not a fed employee, I am, I pay more for my benefits than my wife who is a nurse for a private sector clinic. I can not believe this crap on a conservative blog.

[OldGoatCPO]

You are wrong, I am with DoD, we have many low wage employees making between $7.50 to $10 hourly. They are not GS employees, they have other titles and many are one to two year temp positions. There are many contractors for various low skill jobs, but it depends on the region.

[scbison]

The are low wage and NOT GS/Federal employees? If so, that is my point, there are low wage jobs but not on FEDS payroll but a contractors payroll and not included on average salary federal since thye are not on payroll.