2017 Pay Increase For Federal Employees up to 2.1 Percent

NTEU’s diligent work on behalf of federal employees paid off today as President Obama announced the 2017 federal pay raise will increase from 1.6 percent to an average 2.1 percent.

On Nov. 30, immediately following the 2.1 percent raise announcement for military, the President sent his alternative locality pay plan for federal workers at just 1.6 percent. At the same time, Congress set the military pay raise at 2.1 percent as part of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. NTEU has not stopped working since then, making it clear under the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act the President still had time to increase the pay raise to the same level as the military. NTEU tirelessly pursued key members of Congress, advocating the important federal employee contribution and sacrifice over the last eight years to deficit reduction, enduring pay and hiring freezes, low raises and higher pension contributions.

“While we still believe that the 2.1 percent average increase that will become effective in January should be much bigger, we believe parity with the military is an important recognition of how much our federal workforce contributes to our nation’s wellbeing.” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon.

President Reardon expressed his appreciation to members of Congress who led the effort for the increase including Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Senator-elect Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

Technically Congress still has time to push back, something NTEU strongly doubts but is ready to fight against. We will continue to share information on what this means across different localities and grades. For further questions, email us
here.