US 2017 Federal Budget Proposal: 1.6% Federal Employee Pay Raise and Paid Parental Leave
The newly-released President Barrack Obama’s Administration’s Fiscal Year 2017 Federal Budget Proposal includes the 1.6% federal employee pay raise and six weeks of fully paid parental leave for federal employees, among others.
Federal Pay Raise
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Following the release of the proposed pay rate for federal employees, it has sparked various reactions from several groups, namely: the Federal employee groups, and the American Federation on Government Employees which called for a 5.37% pay raise as reported in the February 9, 2016 edition of the PRNewswire.
“NARFE welcomes the 1.6 percent pay raise proposed by President Obama. For the first time in seven years, the increase follows the letter of the law. However, the proposed increase still lags behind the average increase in private-sector pay, which rose by 2.1 percent, according to the Employment Cost Index, calculate by the Bureau of labor Statistics. Now that our economy is on a stronger footing, it is time to start closing, not growing, the gap between public and private sector wages and salaries. That gap now stands at more than 35 percent and is contributing to the wave of federal retirements and shrinking number of younger workers entering the civil service, ” according to Richard G. Thissen , President of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE).
Along with the budget proposal is the report prepared by the Congressional Budget Office which highlights the comparative analysis of the compensations of the federal and private sector employees.
Differences in skill levels, complexity of work, scope of responsibility, size of the organization, location, exposure to personal danger and experience levels are those factors which are bases for comparing the pay and benefits.
With respect to the factors involving comparisons on the types of compensation, these are pay and bonuses, retirement benefits, health benefits, flexibility of work schedules, training opportunities, job security and profit sharing.
II Six-week Paid Parental Leave
It proposes to provide federal employees with six weeks of paid parental leave. Such parental leave will be filed for purposes of the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child. It will also be used to allow parents to care for a new child.
While the pay gap between employees and their counterpart in the private sector continues to grow, the proposed across-the-board compensation increase is envisioned to address the proliferation of some federal jobs which are noted as severely underpaid. Maximizing the proposed efficient use of federal resources will provide the federal employees continual access to their bright working opportunities they truly deserve.
