The federal government cannot compete with McDonald’s wages.
The GS pay scale is broken and neither Congress nor the Senate are doing anything to fix it. This is undermining the very functionality of the federal government. In January of this year, after the first paychecks of the calendar year had been processed for federal employees nationwide, the president saw fit to make the federal employee minimum wage $15 an hour.
For reference, a GS1 Step 1 (Rest of the United States) is $11.23 per hour and maxes out at Step 10 at $14.05. GS2 does not break $15 until Step 8. GS3 at Step 4. A GS 4 Step 1 makes $15.47. As many states' minimum wage laws exceed these pay levels, the president had to take emergency action to shore up a situation that only our lawmakers can address.
GS 4 is now the new GS 1. Everyone beneath them gets paid as much as they do.
The current proposed 5.1% pay raise for 2023 is wholly insufficient. Not only does it lag the current 8% inflation rate, but it also does not fix the above-stated problem. It only raises a GS 1 Step 1 to $11.80 per hour.
To bring a GS1 Step 1 up to $15 per hour the pay raise would need to be 33.6%. Not 5.1%.
Likewise, the rest of the GS payscale would need to be raised in kind.
In addition to the woes at the bottom of the pay scale, there are high government officials at the top of the pay scale that haven’t had a raise in over a decade. This is because GS 15 are not allowed to earn more than a member of Congress, and Congress hasn’t given itself a raise in years. Bad optics.
Something must be done. Federal employees are being neglected and for proof of that, you need to look no further than the Department of Veterans Affairs in Spokane, WA. Where, despite budget woes, they recently had 50 open medical clerk positions that they could not keep filled.
For all the talk about how essential nurses and doctors are to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the hospital cannot function without its clerks. Without people to answer the phones, schedule appointments, or process paperwork the hospital would have to close its doors. So, their director did the only thing he could do, he gave his clerks a substantial raise. Nearly 40%.
This is leading to staffing problems at other VAs as we now have one federal agency poaching employees from others. Despite the rule that federal employees get their locality pay based on where they live, no federal employee that does not work directly for Spokane VA and its clinics will get the same pay raise as their clerks.
Many federal employees are having to work side gigs, rely on their veteran's disability to cover rent, and are cutting back in general. The Federal Government cannot sustain itself when its lowest-paid workers cannot feed themselves.
Where are the Democrats on this? Why is no action being taken to address this problem? Is it because Congress is afraid of the wrath of the American people should they give themselves a pay raise? I feel it must be so. Keep your own pay the same if you must but do not make us suffer for your optics. I can only conclude that the House and the Senate want our federal government to break at all levels.