White House seeks to end government pay freeze

The Obama administration is planning to end a two-year freeze on the salaries of government employees and propose a modest 0.5 percent pay raise in its fiscal 2013 budget, a US official said Friday.

Office of Managment and Budget employees use a motorized cart to deliver 60 copies of President Barack Obama's proposed FY2012 federal budget to the House Budget Committee in 2011 in Washington, DC. The Obama administration is planning to end a two-year freeze on the salaries of government employees and propose a modest 0.5 percent pay raise in its fiscal 2013 budget, a US official said.

The official, who asked not to be named, confirmed a report in the Washington Post that the proposal would be included in the draft budget to go before Congress in February.

President Barack Obama brought in a two-year pay freeze for federal employees on November 29, 2010, saying sacrifices were needed in order to save $28 billion over five years.

The Post highlighted that the proposed salary raise still requires the approval of Congress, where Republican lawmakers, who control the House of Representatives, have called for the pay freeze to be extended.

The wage hike would also fall below the 3.6 percent cost of living adjustments that went into effect this week for those receiving Social Security benefits.

Labor leaders gave the proposal only a cool welcome.

"Clearly I don't think it comes close to paying federal employees what they're worth, but at the same time, it also breaks this terrible pay freeze that has been put on us," John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told the Post.

The US fiscal year begins on October 1, and Obama's budget will thus cover the period from October 2012 to the end of September 2013.