The head of the American Federation of Government Employees on Feb. 25 called on President Barack Obama to increase federal wages by 4 percent in 2015.
“A 4 percent pay raise is a modest and affordable increase that will help employees keep up with rising living costs, including higher retirement and health care expenses,” J. David Cox Sr., national president of AFGE, said in a statement.
The announcement comes on the heels of two major actions by the government for federal workers.
In December 2013, the president announced a 1 percent increase in federal pay, the first raise since January 2010.
At the State of the Union address, Obama also announced he would sign an executive order to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
Cox called Obama’s 1 percent increase “pitiful.”
Still, some conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation, supported keeping federal pay as it was before the increase.
The budget deal passed Dec. 18 by Congress, raises the spending cap to $1.014 trillion by 2015, lifting the government out of sequester-imposed fiscal belt tightening and possibly freeing funds for further pay raises.
The White House has not commented whether it plans to further raise federal pay.
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