Congress sets ’07 military pay raise at 2.2 percent; civilian raise likely to match

Source: Federal Times.com
Congress has set the Jan. 1 military pay raise at 2.2 percent. And that means it’s all but certain that federal civilian employees will get the same.

 A 2.2 percent average increase would be the smallest raise for civilian employees since 1988 and the smallest military pay increase since 1994. While it would keep pace with inflation — which is projected to climb 2.2 percent in 2007 — it would do nothing to close the lingering gap between government and private-sector pay. Civilian employees on average are paid about 13 percent below private-sector workers, while the military pay gap is about 4.5 percent.

 The 2.2 percent raise is what the Bush administration asked for in its budget blueprint in February, and in the end, Congress decided it could not afford to do more for service members.

 The House earlier this year endorsed a 2.7 percent military raise proposed by the House Armed Services military personnel panel. But that proposal never had a chance of winning full congressional approval, according to sources involved in negotiations to write the final 2007 Defense budget.

 While the full House and the Senate Appropriations Committee both back a 2.7 percent pay hike for civilian workers, it’s highly unlikely Congress would approve a higher raise for federal workers than for service members. The bill that contains the civilian pay raise — the Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development and Judiciary spending bill — has cleared the House but likely won’t be taken up by the full Senate until Congress returns for a lame-duck session following the November election