Just how much is the pay freeze costing you?
Here's a handy calculator to count the cost.
One union says it can help you find out.
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents feds at a dozen or so federal departments and agencies, has posted a free online calculator that the union says will help you see how much you are losing under the federal civilian pay freeze.
The calculator, which IFPTE says assumes a 2 percent inflation rate on base salary, lets you enter a salary, say $50,000, and then automatically generates figures showing your annual salary over 20 years, three ways—with no pay freeze, a two-year freeze and a three-year freeze. For each year, the calculator also computes your cumulative loss under each of the two freeze scenarios.
According to the IFPTE calculator, over the course of 20 years, a two-year freeze for the $50,000 salary example cited above would cost that hypothetical employee nearly the current value of his or her salary—$47,138. Under a three-year freeze, that person would lose $68,550 over 20 years.
We don't know how this calculator works, but a union of engineers probably has decent math credentials, right?
Click here to take a look for yourself.