Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers

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Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers
Daniel Halper
December 28, 2012 12:50 PM

President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the pay increase, he'll now make $231,900 per year. Members of Congress, from the House and Senate, also will receive a little bump, as their annual salary will go from $174,000 to 174,900. Leadership in Congress, including the speaker of the House, will likewise get an increase. Here's the list of new wages, as attached to President Obama's executive order:

"A new executive order has been issued providing for a new pay schedule beginning 'on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning after March 27, 2013,'" reports FedSmith.com. "The pay raise will generally be about 1/2 of 1%." Jeryl Bier points to an example of the pay increase for average government executives:

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Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers

http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/obama-orders-raise-biden-...

"Not much of an increase, but an increase all the same," Bier notes. And the timing isn't great either: Just as President Obama and Congress try to avert going over the "fiscal cliff," he doles out pay increases to federal workers. UPDATE: According to a senior Republican congressional aide who has reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office, Obama's pay raise will cost $11 billion. "The CBO told us that the Presidents pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over ten years," says the aide. The aide explains, "On the cost-estimate, CBO says the (discretionary) cost of the .5% pay-hike the President is calling for in the Exec Order relative to a freeze is about $500m in FY 2013 and $11 billion over the ten years from FY 13 - FY 22. The reason why the FY 13 savings is only $500 million is because the pay hike as proposed by the Presidents Exec Order would not go into effect until April 1 , 2013 - when the current CR expires. So it only covers half the fiscal year. The annualized cost of the pay hike is about $1 billion/year."
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