Obama budget would boost feds' pay 1.6 percent

President Barack Obama's fiscal 2017 budget will propose a pay increase for military and civilian federal employees that averages 1.6 percent, an administration official said in a Feb. 3 statement. The average federal pay raise this fiscal year is 1.3 percent.

Federal pay rates have ridden a bumpy path in recent budget battles on Capitol Hill. Obama signed a two-year pay freeze in December 2010 in an effort to cut the deficit.  According to the Federal Salary Council, federal salaries are on average 35 percent less than for comparable private-sector jobs.

 J. David Cox Sr., national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Obama's proposal  "set the bar far too low." In a statement, Cox proposed a 5.3 percent pay raise in 2017, which he said "reflects the 1.6 percent national increase employees should receive plus a partial catch-up for the national and local pay adjustments denied for the past four years."