In a letter to congressional leaders on Aug. 31, President Biden formalized his plan to provide civilian federal employees with an average 5.2% pay increase—their largest in four decades. In March, Biden first announced his pay raise plan as part of his fiscal 2024 budget proposal, recommending the most significant pay increase for civilian federal workers since the Carter administration.
August’s announcement confirms that, if implemented, federal employees will see an across-the-board increase in base pay of 4.7% and an average 0.5% boost to locality pay. In his letter, Biden said the pay raise is critical to his administration’s goal of ensuring the federal government is a model employer and can attract qualified candidates to join the workforce.
So, what does this announced pay raise for federal employees mean for USPS EAS employees? The maximum of the EAS pay scale will be raised to around 4%; an equivalent dollar amount will raise the minimum of the EAS pay scale to that 4%. To be clear, every federal employee’s actual pay will be raised by 5.2%—not based on targets and indicators or Corporate, Unit or Individual goals.
In contrast, EAS employees in the USPS will have the minimum and maximum pay levels raised, which does not affect the actual pay of every EAS employee. To get a raise in pay, EAS employees must navigate the NPA minefield for a hopeful PFP payout; a minefield of targets and indicators or Corporate, Unit or Individual goals designed to be moved at will by USPS leadership.