Dateline: February 3, 2015

What will it be like in Congress for at least the next two years? While House Republicans want to get rid of almost 300,000 federal employees, House Democrats want to give all 3 million of them the biggest raise they’ve gotten in years. That’s pretty much how it’s going to be.

With the co-sponsorship of 31 other House Democrats, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia) has introduced legislation that would give federal workers a 3.8% pay increase.

Rep. Connolly’s Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act (H.R. 304), would bestow the raise on all civilian federal employees starting in 2016. Raises offered in the FAIR Act would also apply to Postal Service employees.

An identical companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Democrats Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Ben Cardin of Maryland.

Even as House Republicans call attrition – as a good thing -- the best way to cut the federal workforce, Rep. Connolly says employee attrition -- as bad thing -- has increased by 34% since 2009, already eliminating 585,000 full-time employees. In addition, he says, wages paid to federal workers have lagged far behind private sector wages since 2009, not even keeping up with the rate of inflation.

Morale Busters

“No other group in our country has been demonized, demoralized and asked to sacrifice more than our federal workforce. They have been disparaged and belittled.” Congressman Connolly said in a press statement. “This bill is a down payment on trying to help restore some of the losses that have been incurred by federal employees.

They have endured a three-year wage freeze, four years without locality pay, higher retirement contributions for certain employees, wage-reducing work furloughs, cuts from sequestration, and a government shutdown.”

All that “disparaging and belittling” has resulted in the lowest morale and job satisfaction among federal employees ever reported. According to the latest Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report, the average job satisfaction and commitment level rating of federal government workers have now fallen to a record 13 percentage points below that of private-sector employees.

 Perhaps even more telling are results of the government’s own 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which revealed morale and job satisfaction within the Department of Defense had fallen in 47 out of 84 categories, typically indicating a drastic decline in morale.

“Enough is enough. It is time for Congress to provide the dedicated men and women of our federal workforce with fair compensation,” said Rep. Connolly. “It is a statement by Congress to federal workers that we do value who you are and what you do. These cuts have had an undeniable impact on morale, and morale impacts productivity.”

31 of 31 Democrats Agree

Several of the 31 Democratic Representatives added their comments in support of the FAIR Act.

Noting that as victims of a three-year pay freeze, furloughs during government shutdowns and budget sequestration, federal employees have contributed $138 billion toward deficit reduction and now deserved some payback, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said, “So many of the public functions we often take for granted are the purview of the hard working men and women who constitute our federal workforce, and they deserve fair pay and benefits. Advancing the FAIR Act will help the government recruit and retain the top-quality workforce the American people need and deserve.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), called the FAIR Act’s 3.8% raise “a modest first step to stem attrition in the federal workforce and help attract and retain the best and brightest to federal service.”

“Federal wages have long been stagnant and have fallen far behind the private sector, so it’s about time that career civil servants -- like those in my district working to combat diseases like Ebola at NIH and treating our veterans at Walter Reed – are fairly compensated,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland).

 “With 40 percent of our civil workforce eligible to retire in the next decade, and morale and workplace satisfaction at all-time lows, it’s long past time for our federal civil service to receive fair compensation for their vital contributions to millions of American families, “ said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia).