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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (33337)	3/8/2004 4:51:20 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793622

The real Washington "Fat Cats." Lindybill@danderup.com Pay Increases Give Washington's White-Collar Workers an Above-Average Raise By Stephen Barr Monday, March 8, 2004; Page B02 I nside the government, Washington is a bit different, a bit special. The city is home to Cabinet headquarters and independent agencies that rely on lawyers, scientists, economists and managers. So it's no surprise that, with the publication of new pay tables last week, the average federal white-collar salary in the city and surrounding counties has increased to $75,438. For the larger Washington-Baltimore locality pay zone, as defined by the Office of Personnel Management, the average salary is $74,010. Worldwide, the average General Schedule salary is $58,465, according to the number crunchers at OPM. Those are some of the snapshots that emerged from President Bush's executive order, which implemented a 2004 pay raise that was delayed because Congress and the administration fell behind schedule in wrapping up work on this year's appropriations bills. Federal employees began the year under an executive order providing a 2 percent raise. Bush's new order superseded that directive and provided an average 4.1 percent raise. Employees will be entitled to a retroactive raise (for most employees, back to Jan. 11) to make up the difference. OPM officials said they could not predict when the new rates will show up in paychecks, but Kay Coles James, the OPM director, told agencies in a memo last week that "it is imperative" for personnel offices to "process these retroactive payments expeditiously so that federal payroll providers can issue payments to employees as soon as possible." Of the 4.1 percent average increase, 2.7 percent was allocated as an across-the-board increase in basic pay rates and 1.4 percent to locality pay increases that vary depending on the area. For the Washington-Baltimore area, that means General Schedule employees received a 4.42 percent raise. Federal employees in 11 cities got higher raises, with San Francisco at the top with a 5.35 percent raise. In keeping with tradition, today's Federal Diary includes the new white-collar pay table for the Washington-Baltimore area. Pay tables for other regions and other categories of employees are posted on the OPM Internet site (www.opm.gov). © 2004 The Washington Post Company