President Barack Obama has decided to increase the salary of federal civilian employees by 2.1 percent in fiscal 2017 to equal military pay raise mandated under the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.
Jason Miller writes the Obama made the decision after Democratic members of Congress asked him to increase the raise of civilian workforce.
“I have concluded it would be appropriate to revise my original alternative plan for locality payments so that the total combined cost of the 1.0 percent across-the-board base pay increase and varying locality payments will be 2.1 percent of basic payroll,” Obama told House and Senate leaders in a letter obtained by Federal News Radio.
The $619 billion NDAA was approved by Congress Wednesday and now awaits Obama’s signature.