A base pay raise for federal employees is in the cards for 2020. President Trump announced his support for a 2.6% boost in late August. While the base pay is growing, locality pay across the country will most likely stay the course. Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, says that raising locality pay is important to maintaining a competitive workforce.
“NTEU continues to support what the House approved, which is a 3.1% pay increase. Now, what think is important about the 3.1 increase; Clearly it’s more, It is the 2.6% across the board like the president has, but it also includes a half a percent in locality pay,” Reardon said. “The reason In my view, that half of percent is important… is because that recognizes that we’ve got a lot of federal employees living in high cost areas. The locality pay recognizes that and really helps to make the federal pay in the high cost areas more competitive.”
