Browsing: Pay & Benefits

President Barack Obama greeted his new White House staff this afternoon with a few announcements that he said “represent a clean break from business as usual.” According to this Associated Press report, President Obama said he’s instituting a pay freeze for the roughly 100 White House employees who make more than $100,000 a year. The move is a direct response to the economic crisis gripping the nation. In another move, Obama issued new rules that attempt to crack down on lobbyists influencing the administration. The rules restrict political appointees who leave the administration from lobbying former friends and colleagues for at least…

If you’re one of the 187,000 employees under the Defense Department’s performance-based pay system, figuring out how much your raise is going to be next year is sort of like doing your taxes — only worse. There’s no Turbo Tax equivalent for the National Security Personnel System. Luckily (we think), the helpful folks at the Pentagon have just come out with a fact sheet that attempts to bring clarity to the complex pay formula that’s used to determine raises.

The widely anticipated pay raises for 2009 were just released this morning. In an executive order, President George W. Bush outlined how various pay schedules will be impacted by the 3.9 percent overall pay raise that Congress enacted. Also, the Office of Personnel Management released the new 2009 pay tables for the various localities. Among the highlights: Basic pay under the General Schedule will go up 2.9 percent. The remainder of the 3.9 percent overall pay raise enacted by Congress will go toward locality raises. Among the 30-plus locality pay zones, employees in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore-Northern Virginia region will see…

The open season for the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program is being extended through the end of January due to a dustup over billing for out-of-network surgeries. Previously, participants would have had to make their choice by the end of today. But what about people who made a choice before learning of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s controversial billing system, and now want to change their plan? Are they out of luck? Don’t worry, said Michael Orenstein of the Office of Personnel Management. Even if you’ve already chosen a plan, you can change your mind as many times as you want…

The Partnership for Public Service released a report this morning containing advice for the next president from chief human capital officers. The Partnership surveyed 54 CHCOs, and their deputies, and solicited opinions on several topics: pay scales, telework, and the effectiveness of their HR staffs, to name a few. (The complete report, in PDF form, is here.) Two of the most interesting conclusions: First, a clear majority of the respondents favored eliminating the General Schedule pay scale; just 14 percent thought it should be retained: Second, more than half of the respondents view their human resources staffers largely as “transaction…

This morning’s meeting of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board brought some sobering statistics on the Thrift Savings Plan’s performance in October. And investors continue to pull their money out of plummeting stock-based funds for the safety of the securities-backed G Fund, just as they have for most of 2008. Unfortunately, there’s no certain relief in sight for the economic troubles that are dragging the TSP down. Yesterday Citigroup became the latest bank to receive financial assistance from the federal government. Stocks rose today with the news of Citigroup’s bailout, as well as president-elect Barack Obama’s proposal for a $700 billion…

I’m about to join a conference call with the American Federation of Government Employees to get their thoughts on what an Obama administration will mean for federal workers. But we already know that Obama could make some significant changes in the Defense Department’s National Security Personnel System. Obama in September told unions that he was unhappy with how NSPS was set up, and pledged to alter its regulations or even repeal the controversial program. Obama has not said how he might alter NSPS. There will be roughly 205,000 Defense employees under NSPS by the time Obama takes power, though observers don’t expect…

Feds in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska, will have to tighten their belts a little after Dec. 3. That is the day those employees’ cost-of-living allowances will drop from 24 percent to 23 percent, the Office of Personnel Management said in a Nov. 3 Federal Register notice. The reductions are based on cost-of-living surveys OPM conducted in 2006. And the COLA in those cities could drop even further. OPM in August proposed reducing the allowance to 22 percent. That reduction would not occur until December 2009 at the earliest. The COLA for federal employees in other parts of Alaska will remain unchanged at…

T’is the season — open season, that is. Beginning next Monday, Nov. 10, you have four weeks to choose your insurers for health, dental and vision coverage in 2009. You can also set up flexible spending accounts for pretax savings on health and dependent care expenses. You can start your planning today, as the Office of Personnel Management has posted premiums and other details on the 2009 plans. Happy shopping.

Another day, another drop in the Dow. The Dow had another heart-stopping day today, losing more than 500 points as of 4 p.m. And if you’ve looked at your TSP account lately, you might be having panic attacks and be contemplating drastic changes to your fund allocations. That’s exactly what Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board members and staff are hoping you won’t do. “This is not the time to sell low when you bought high,” said member Alejandro Sanchez at Monday’s board meeting. The board urged participants to hang in there, saying market history proves short-term losses are just a…

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