Do federal employees really care about their retirement, pay, and benefits??? The more people I talk to, the more I realize that most don’t even think about it. Maybe when the employee is near retirement they start to ask questions because they are nervous, but why not ask questions before? Are we too busy to care or are we so focused on public service that money is not a priority? For me, from day one, money is a priority – every cent counts. Especially with the pay freeze, it will likely continue past 2015. This sacrifice is costing federal employees billions of dollars in income over their lifetime. But there is something that can do now to make up a portion of the difference in lost pay. Locality Pay is something that we can fight for, that is the pay that is added to your base GS salary in order boost your pay for areas that are more expensive that others. But we all know, the system isn’t perfect, it can be better. In order to make this system better, I have started a petition on the Official White House website, this petition is designed to get the U.S. President to listen to his federal workforce because the current Locality Pay system doesn’t accurately depict which areas cost more than others. For example, if you live in Houston, your locality pay is 28%, and if you live in DC, your locality pay is only 24%. Now we all know it is more expensive to live in DC, so why do some areas get more money and some places don’t? It is because the system isn’t designed to reflect High Cost of living areas vs Low cost of living.
If you are tired of your pay being stripped away from the pay freeze but don’t feel you have a voice. Then at least we can make an effort to get our Locality Pay fixed. Please sign the petition online, it only takes a brief moment to do so. Together we can make a change.
Daniel
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