Obama Recommends A Two Year Pay Freeze For Federal Employees
By Stephanie Robins on November 30, 2010, 6:50 am Posted in Finance News
President Obama has declared a freeze in pay for 1.9 million workers for the federal government. The plan is for the pay halt to be in place for two years, this is in response to Republicans who are concerned about the rising deficit. Polls show that 52 percent of Americans consider federal employees receive better wages.
Lowering The Deficit Will Require Sacrifice
The pay freeze would be the first one to occur in recent years. The last time a freeze was enacted was in 1986 for one year. Those who are employed by the government are also looking at a health insurance cost increase by 7.2 percent. Federal employees currently receive transit aid and that is going to be reduced by half at the first of the year. Making these changes to federal employees will only reduce the deficit by $2 billion.
Republicans Are To Blame
Republicans took up federal employee pay as an issue when they were campaigning this year. They are claiming that these employees are protected from the problems that employees employed by private companies are encountering. Republicans are also looking to reduce funding for retirement pay, lower bonuses and hire less workers. They are agreeing that Obama’s plan is a good place to begin reducing the deficit.
Federal Employees Earnings
Officials are disputing whether federal employees earn more than those employed by similar entities in the private division. Government administrators are claiming that the calculations are incorrect. President Obama has already halted pay increases for senior White House officials for the second year consecutive. Congress also voted to freeze their pay increase for 2011. Concerns have been expressed over the ability to attract new talent with funds on hold.
Related posts:
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- Obama Calls Unemployment Solution ‘Short And Sadly Familiar’
- Unemployment Steady, GOP Rails Dems – Dems Blame Repubs
- Health Care Insurance Costs Rise For All – Employer And Employee
