FAIR Act Proposes 5.1 Average Increase to Federal Pay Rates for 2023

MYTH: Pay raises are a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for federal employees. REALITY: Pay raises for federal employees ensure that their salaries remain competitive with those in the private sector. Raises are subject to a “locality pay adjustment,” which reflects regional differences in wages across the country. In contrast, yearly retiree annuity COLAs are automatically provided using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). COLAs are intended to help retirees’ annuities keep pace with inflation.

U.S. government can have outstanding. This agreement comes after more than half a year of posturing and shortterm patches, such as the $480 billion bipartisan debt limit increase passed in October, as both parties attempted to reach a compromise to increase the debt limit.

The debt limit has been raised or suspended numerous times. According to the Department of Treasury, “Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend or revise the definition of the debt limit—49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents. Congressional leaders in both parties have recognized that this is necessary.”

Senate leaders struck a deal that allowed the bill to pass via a fast-track process in the Senate, bypassing the threat of a filibuster for this one-time exception. After the process was approved with sufficient bipartisan support,

the bill only required approval from a simple majority in the Senate. This would permit Senate Democrats to raise the debt limit on their own and allowed Senate Republicans to avoid voting to increase the debt limit.

The House of Representatives first passed a bill approving the fast-track procedures through a party-line vote, 222-212, with Democrats and one Republican supporting the measure. Then, 14 Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, joined Senate Democrats to pass the procedural workaround through the upper chamber.

With the expedited procedures in place, the vote to increase the limit itself fell on party lines in both chambers, 50-49 in the Senate and 221-209 in the House, with Democrats voting for, and Republicans— with one exception, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-IL—voting against the bill.

The final bill raised the debt limit by $2.5 trillion, extending the amount of funds the federal government can borrow into 2023, well past the 2022 midterm elections.

—BY JOHN ROBERT AYERS, POLICY AND PROGRAMS ASSISTANT

On January 13, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-VA, and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI, introduced legislation to increase federal pay, which would help close the gap between public- and private-sector pay rates. The Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, H.R. 6398, would institute a 4.1 percent across-the-board increase, as well as a 1 percent average increase to locality pay. The 4.1 percent raise would be the largest across-the-board increase since 2004. This is the eighth year that Rep. Connolly has introduced the FAIR Act.

The 4.1 percent increase is based on the annual change to private sector pay, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index, minus 0.5 percent. This follows the