There’s a lot of strong emotions on display in the comments section of our main article on Obama’s proposed 2-year pay freeze. Sound off there, or in our Federal Times forum here. What do you think — is this a slap at federal workers that will kill productivity and hamstring recruitment and retention efforts? Or is this a tough pill that feds are going to have to swallow to help the nation get through an unprecedented fiscal crisis? Or if you’d like to talk to me in more detail, send me an e-mail at slosey@federaltimes.com. We want to hear from…
Browsing: Pay & Benefits
We’re back! The overwhelming interest in the breaking pay freeze news was a little more than our servers could handle, but all is well now. There’s been an awful lot of reaction to Obama’s announcement in the last few hours, so here goes: AFGE President John Gage reiterated his anger and disappointment in Obama’s decision during a conference call with reporters this afternoon. But while NTEU earlier today pledged to try to fight the freeze in Congress, Gage was less optimistic. “The chances are slim” that the freeze could be overturned, Gage said. But the pay freeze isn’t absolute. Office…
Should the federal government change the way it determines the gap between public and private pay? It’s been a hot political topic this year, and the new Republican majority in the House is certain to shine a spotlight on federal salaries. Many critics say the government’s pay gap method doesn’t hold water and needs a complete overhaul. Vote in our poll on our homepage, and then sound off here on what you think should be done.
Scott Friedlander may be out as the chief executive officer of GTSI Corp., but he’ll keep drawing his $400,000 annual salary for another year, along with a one-time $450,000 severance payment, according to a recent corporate filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. GTSI will also reimburse Friedlander for COBRA health insurance expenses for up to 18 months, provide him with continued participation in the company’s long-term care plan for up to a year, and allow him the maximum time possible to exercise his remaining stock options. Friedlander. who had taken over as GTSI’s president and CEO in February, agreed…
Attention feds, if you have read the Washington Post recently, a new poll there delivers a message in the form of a survey. Stop making so much money and working less hard. I know, I know. The survey results are here if you want to see. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101703866.html The survey of 1,002 adults found 52 percent think federal employees are “overpaid for the work they do” while 33 percent think they are paid the right amount, and 9 percent think they are underpaid. According to the Washington Post poll, 49 percent said feds work less hard than peers in the private…
Are you a recent federal retiree who is still getting a partial annuity check each month? Federal Times would like to hear from you. We’d like to find out how long you’ve been waiting for your full check, how much less you’re getting paid than what you’ve earned, and what you’ve heard from OPM when you inquired about the problem. E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com. If you’d like to speak off the record or not have your name used in my story, that’s certainly fine.
The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program premiums will go up 7.2 percent on average next year, the Office of Personnel Management said last week. For the most popular federal plan — Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard — self-only premiums are going up 6.9 percent and self-and-family plans are going up 7.6 percent. Also, six health care plans are dropping out of FEHBP: Louisiana’s Vantage Health Plans; Nevada’s Pacificare of Nevada; New Jersey’s AmeriHealth HMO; New York’s Community Blue; Rhode Island and Massachussetts’ BlueCHiP Coordinated Health Plan; and the multistate UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, which included a high-deductible health plan option and…
Confused about the health care reform bill? You’re not alone. According to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health care policy research organization, 53 percent of Americans say they still don’t know what the health care bill means. And confusion is growing — that number is 8 percentage points higher than in August. Considering the complexity of the matter, rabid politicking, and the spin thrown around over the last year or so (death panels, anyone?), it’s not surprising so many Americans are in the dark. But Kaiser has recently released a video that hopes to…
The Heritage Foundation today hosted a panel discussion on the public-private pay gap that didn’t really touch on a whole lot that hasn’t already been hashed out over the last several months. But it did yield this interesting exchange in response to a reporter’s question about the Obama administration’s claims that stimulus dollars saved state and local government jobs: Chris Edwards, Cato Institute: ‘What’s wrong with layoffs of state and local government workers? … Recessions create a sort of weeding out in the private sector, where companies lay off the least efficient workers, and then they’re ready to grow again…
OPM Director John Berry earlier today, on the chances for resolving the ongoing brouhaha over federal pay: I’ve been in this business 25 years, and in 1985, the same ideological argument was drawn. I don’t expect any sort of kumbaya moment where suddenly this 25-year battle is drawn to a conclusion. I think we might have a better shot at Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton succeeding in the Middle East.