AFGE members are continuing to put pressure on their lawmakers to support legislation that would end the local pay disparities between hourly and salaried workers.
Currently, salaried and hourly federal employees can work side-by-side in the exact same location yet be treated as though they work in different locations when it comes to determining their locality pay.
Legislation to fix this disparity was introduced both in the House and Senate in May by two Pennsylvania Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Matt Cartwright and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. Their legislation would equalize the local pay boundaries and prohibit having more than one local wage area within a pay locality, with the exception of the Rest of U.S. locality. Their bill also ensures no employee will lose pay as a result of the changes.
This pay inequity affects thousands of hourly employees across the country, including at Tobyhanna Army Depot in northeast Pennsylvania, Letterkenny Army Depot in southcentral Pennsylvania, and Tracy Army Depot in central California.
The House bill (HR 3086) has just one cosponsor so far, Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.). The Senate bill (S 1561) has three cosponsors: Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
To get movement on this critical legislation, we need more lawmakers to sign on as cosponsors. Click here to send an automatically generated letter to your House and Senate lawmakers, urging them to support this bill!
So far, nearly 1,280 letters have been sent to lawmakers urging them to cosponsor this legislation. We need more AFGE members to contact their lawmakers today and tell them to support the Locality Pay Equity Act! Sign on NOW!
The fight for a $15 minimum wage continues
In the meantime, AFGE also is supporting moves by the Biden administration to increase the minimum wage for federal employees to $15 an hour. We have urged the administration to apply this minimum to both hourly and salaried employees (anyone with a salary at or below $31,305).
In his second full day in office, President Biden called on his administration to develop recommendations to increase the minimum wage for federal employees from a low of $7.25 to $15 an hour. We are still waiting for the Office of Personnel Management to submit its report to the president on how to accomplish the wage increase.
In April, Biden issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour starting next year. Up to 390,000 low-wage contract workers will receive a pay increase as a result of the wage hike.
In June, President Biden pledged to increase starting salaries for federal firefighters to $15 an hour by issuing bonuses to those earning less than that amount.
Currently there are more than 22,000 hourly and salaried federal workers across all occupations who are paid below $15 an hour.
The Office of Personnel Management last week took a huge step toward aligning the locality pay maps for employees on the Federal Wage System and General Schedule.
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