On May 24, FMA and our Federal-Postal Coalition (FPC) partners sent letters to legislators in the U.S. House and Senate in support of the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, which would provide a 3.2 percent pay raise for feds in 2022. This across-the-board raise would provide a 2.2 percent increase to base pay and a 1 percent boost to locality pay, which was frozen at 2020 levels this year.

Days later, the Biden administration proposed a 2.7 percent raise as part of its Fiscal Year 2022 budget request. You can read more details about that request in another article in this Washington Report. FMA continues to support the 3.2 percent raise, as provided by the FAIR Act. 

The letter state, in part, “Our coalition urges Congress to enable the federal government to compete for top talent by supporting competitive pay. Appropriating a 3.2 percent average pay raise for 2022 matches trends in the private sector and is a necessary step to ensure the federal government does not fall further behind in pay. Under the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA) federal employees should receive at least a 2.2 percent across-the-board increase in federal pay rates in January 2022 prior to any amount being provided for locality pay rate increases. This suggested percentage increase is based on the 2.7 percent increase in wages and salaries paid to workers in the private sector, as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI). This 2.7 percent increase in the ECI also serves as the default military pay increase for 2022. An average 0.5 percent increase to locality pay rates would ensure an average pay increase of 2.7 percent, at parity with the expected military pay increase and recent private-sector pay increases. An additional 0.5 percent increase in locality pay would make up for below market increases in recent years.”

The letters also urged Congress to look at the issue of competitive pay and the strain placed on certain sectors of the federal government due to below-market wages. “There are many occupations in the federal workforce that are understaffed because the federal government is unable to compete with private-sector pay. The jobs are often specialty occupations that require years of advanced education and training, and their understaffing puts Americans at risk . . . Congress should institute specialty pay for occupations the federal government is in desperate need of and offer competitive pay for jobs in difficult to recruit areas of the country. The federal government must have the means to fill these critical roles,” the letter said.

To read the full letter to the House, please click here. To read the full Senate letter, please click here.