Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.?As the details of the largest federal pay raise in some 20 years were announced today, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said that higher pay for government service is appropriate because that service is becoming not just more complex, but more important in people's everyday lives.

"It serves all of us well when we can attract and retain the best among us to public service," said the head of the nation's largest independent federal union, noting that "appropriate pay is one of the important ways to help do that." She emphasized the importance of closing the gap between pay levels in the public and private sectors.

Effective the first full pay period after January 1, the 2000 General Schedule and locality pay tables released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) show total increases, depending on area of the country, ranging between 4.69 percent and 5.59 percent, including an across?the?board pay increase of 3.8 percent. Such a raise was a priority for the union and shows that grassroots efforts work, Kelley said.

"These increases reflect only part of the continuing contribution of federal employees to this nation, and in particular to the economic prosperity we now enjoy," Kelley said. "Closing the pay gap with the private sector would go a long way toward restoring respect for public service," the union president added. NTEU represents some 155,000 employees in 24 agencies and departments.

The union has long argued for adherence by both the administration and Congress to the 1994 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA), a bipartisan law that called for closing in stages over 10 years the public?private pay gap.

"Even with low inflation, we continue to make insufficient progress in following FEPCA and closing the pay gap," Kelley said. No federal pay raise since the effective date of FEPCA has met its annual dollar or percentage benchmarks.

The NTEU president said no single group has contributed as much as federal employees?more than $220 billion in pay and benefit raises delayed and denied?over the past dozen years to the first balanced budget since the late 1960s. "That alone, notwithstanding their day in, day out work on behalf of the American people, should dictate more movement in line with FEPCA," Kelley said.