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Washington, D.C.—House Budget Committee approval of a fiscal 2010 budget resolution including language calling for parity in 2010 pay raises for the federal civilian workforce and members of the military carries an important and positive message for all federal employees and retains a vital principle, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today.

“The longstanding principle of military-civilian pay parity has been a tenet of federal pay policy for most of the past 20 years,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “It is a precedent too important to ignore.”

“The House budget resolution reflects bipartisan support for pay parity and the need to ensure that such parity continues,” Kelley said, adding: “These two groups of dedicated men and women work together, and often side-by-side, to keep us safe and help improve the quality of our lives in so many ways. Both groups deserve an equal pay raise.”

The Senate Budget Committee is working today on its version of a 2010 budget resolution; President Kelley said she is pleased to see that it, too, contains support for a continuation of pay parity. “Inclusion by the Senate Budget Committee of pay parity language indicates the vast support that pay parity has in Congress,” Kelley said. “I am pleased that both bodies recognize the importance of retaining a similar pay increase for civilian employees and members of the military.”

The administration has proposed a 2010 raise of 2.9 percent for those in the military, and 2 percent for federal civilian employees.

The NTEU leader applauded the work of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) in helping secure pay parity language in the House resolution. She repeated her interest in conducting a broader discussion with the White House on matters impacting the comparability of federal and private sector pay, as well as on a variety of issues surrounding benefits. The pay gap in favor of the private sector presently is put at some 23 percent.

Kelley noted the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 was designed to close the gap, in stages, over 10 years, but has simply never been fully implemented as intended.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.