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Federal Employees Facing Pay Disparity in 2024
A recent report from the Federal Salary Council reveals that, on average, federal employees earned 24.72% less than their private sector counterparts in similar positions in 2024. This information is derived from data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Federal Salary Council, consisting of human resources experts appointed by the president and representatives from public unions, focuses on matters concerning compensation for government employees. Doreen Greenwald, the national president of the National Treasury Employees Union and a member of the council, emphasized the urgent need for higher salaries, arguing that the current compensation levels are driving skilled professionals away from essential public service roles.
“It is a loss to our country when highly qualified professionals turn away from critical public service jobs because the paychecks can’t keep up with for-profit corporations,” Greenwald stated, urging both Congress and the White House to take action to ensure federal salaries remain competitive in 2025.
The current pay gap represents a slight improvement compared to 2023, when the council reported a disparity of 27.54%. The National Treasury Employees Union attributes this positive change to the average pay raise of 5.2% granted to federal employees in 2024, marking the largest salary increase in over four decades.
Looking ahead, federal employees are set to receive a modest 2% average salary increase next year, which has drawn criticism from government unions and certain Democratic lawmakers who argue that this adjustment is insufficient.
The council published the pay disparity findings during a meeting where it made new recommendations for the Biden administration. One of the key proposals was to establish new locality pay areas in Kennewick-Richland-Walla Walla, Washington, and Syracuse-Auburn, New York. Both regions have shown a pay disparity exceeding 10 percentage points above the national average during the three-year period from March 2022 to March 2024.
If these locality pay areas are established, they would impact approximately 4,368 general schedule employees, according to the council’s report.
Additionally, the council noted that the Dothan, Alabama area technically qualifies to be designated as a locality pay area but decided against recommending it due to skewed data that affected the accuracy of the findings.
Furthermore, the council has reiterated its prior recommendation to include Wyandot County, Ohio, into the Columbus locality pay area and to add Yuma County, Arizona, to the Phoenix locality pay area. This suggestion comes as adjustments to locality pay areas are expected to align with the latest geographical data from the Office of Management and Budget. In typical scenarios where counties find themselves surrounded by current locality pay areas, it is standard practice to incorporate such counties into those designated areas.
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