Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: THE FEDERAL DIARY=Raise and Raise Again=By Mike Causey=Washington Post Staff Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 04:28:31 EST Message-ID: <40.1992Oct28.042831@AmeriCast.com> THE FEDERAL DIARY=Raise and Raise Again=By Mike Causey=Washington Post Staff Writer= White-collar federal workers in the Washington area who will get a 3.7 percent raise in January are due a double-barreled pay in- crease in 1994: a flat 2.2 percent, based on pay changes in the private sector this year, plus an add-on raise designed to start closing the gap between federal and private pay. The typical white-collar government worker in the Washington area is paid $44,758 annually. Nationwide, the average for federal employees is $33,736 a year. Most white-collar workers will get the 3.7 percent raise in Janu- ary. It represents the increase in private-sector pay (for the 12-month period ending in September 1991), as measured by the Em- ployment Cost Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because of the time lag, the 1994 raise will be based on the Employment Cost Index for the 12-month period ending last month. Starting in 1994, as part of a nine-year plan to link federal and private pay city by city, white-collar workers will get a nation- al raise based on the Employment Cost Index (minus 0.5 percent) plus a locality raise where the government determines the pay level is substantially behind private pay rates. Those city-by-city pay gaps have not yet been determined. If, for example, the federal vs. nonfederal pay gap in the Washington area is determined to be 20 percent, then, under the complicated catch-up formula, workers would get a locality adjustment of 2.8 percent in addition to the general 1994 pay increase of 2.2 per- cent. The locality raise represents two-tenths of the amount necessary to bring federal pay within 5 percent of nonfederal pay.Retirement Benefits Federal/military retirees and Social Security recipients will get 3 percent cost-of-living increases in January. When the in- crease takes effect, the average Social Security benefit will be $653 a month, or about half the average civil service pension. The raise will bring the average Social Security benefit to $1,106 a month for an aged couple and to $608 a month for an aged widow or widower living alone. Women's Leadership Session I listed the wrong number in Sunday's item about the Nov. 12 breakfast meeting of the Armed Forces Communications and Elec- tronics Association. The session will hear from a panel of women in top federal jobs. The number for reservations is 703-692- 5358.Winners Montgomery County's Commission on People With Disability will give its top service award today to Rockelle Hammond and Darlene Copeland, of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Office of Personnel Management has given its top honor, the Pendleton Award, to K. William Cramp, Jacqueline F. Cunningham, Shirley P. Edwards, Rosemary R. Figueroa, Marva McCullough, Timothy S. Percival, Mary M. Rill, Leota M. Shelkey, Raymond M. Spicer Jr., Wanda M. Whitfield and Jeffrey M. Zwick. OPM yesterday officially changed the name of its headquarters building from Federal Office Building No. 9 to the Theodore Roosevelt Building, in honor of the civil service commissioner who went on to become president.<02:31 10-28C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)