IFPTE Applauds President Biden’s Pay Agent for Approving Locality Pay Improvements for Federal Employees, Thanks NH-VT Congressional Delegation for Support for IFPTE Local 4 Members
The approved recommendations make federal locality pay more competitive with private sector, improve recruitment and retention, support equity in hiring, but “more needs to be done” to correct pay disparities for federal employees
WASHINGTON, DC – The executive officers of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) applauded today’s release of the annual report of the President’s Pay Agent – comprised of Office of Management Budget Director Shalanda Young, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja, and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh – which approves recommendations made by the Federal Salary Council that would add locality pay for over 33,000 federal employees in the General Schedule (GS) pay system.
IFPTE President Matthew Biggs and Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson issued the following joint statement:
“Our union applauds the President’s Pay Agent and their annual report, which agrees to the Federal Salary Council’s recommendations to update the criteria for establishing and extending locality pay areas. Once implemented, these changes are expected to result in federal employees across the nation, including IFPTE members, being added to new or existing locality pay areas and receiving pay that more closely reflects their cost of living. At a time when Congress and the Biden Administration have committed to investing in our national infrastructure, critical R&D programs, resiliency in energy and defense, and expanding services to veterans, these improvements to the locality pay criteria will help federal agencies hire qualified employees, retain dedicated civil servants who want to build careers in federal government, and support the federal government’s goals for equity in hiring and promotion. Th new locality pay criteria will also deliver economic benefits to so many communities across the country where federal employees live and work.
IFPTE thanks Sen. Hassan and Sen. Shaheen for leading a Vermont-New Hampshire delegation letter and for Sen. Leahy, Sen. Sanders, Rep. Kuster, Rep. Pappas, and Rep. Welch for requesting the President’s Pay Agent approve the Federal Salary Council’s recommendations. We commend their support for extending locality pay to some 1,260 federal employees in the two states and a total of 33,000 federal employees across the nation. Further, our union thanks the members of the Federal Salary Council, including the federal employee unions on the Council, and OPM staff for considering the locality pay equity concerns that IFPTE members and the federal agencies brought forward.
Finally, as we express our gratitude for the President’s Pay Agent’s decision to support these important improvements in federal locality pay, we know more must be done to make close the significant disparity between federal employee compensation and private sector pay, which on average is 22.47%, according to the Federal Salary Council. We are committed to furthering progress towards closing that gap in the upcoming year and will work with Congress, the Biden Administration, our union members and leaders, and other federal employee unions to do so.”
Earlier this year, IFPTE Local 4-Chapter 1, representing employees at the Army Corps Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), requested New Hampshire Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), Rep. Anne Kuster (D-NH), and Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) ask the President’s Pay Agent to approve the Federal Salary Council’s recommendations. The New Hampshire and Vermont Congressional delegation’s November 16 letter to the President’s Pay Agent highlighted the impact that locality pay would have on staffing at the White River Junction VA Medical Center and that, at the “Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, closing the pay gap between federal and private sector salaries would help retain mid-career employees and attract new hires to support the lab’s mission of investigating pressing environmental science problems, including climate change, for the national defense and the public good.”
Across the United States and Canada, IFPTE represents 90,000 highly skilled workers in the federal, public, and private sectors. IFPTE is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress.
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Download a PDF of this press release here.
Read the Annual Report of the President’s Pay Agent here.
The Federal Salary Council’s recommendations and meeting minutes can be found here.