Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) introduced the bipartisan Wage Grade Employee Parity Act on Thursday to ensure that federal employees receive a proportionate cost of living wage adjustment.
President Barack Obama recently provided a 1 percent cost of living adjustment to general schedule, or salaried, federal employees. The president does not have authority, however, to provide a cost of living adjustment wage grade to employees that are paid per hour.
The Wage Grade Employee Parity Act would provide a cost of living adjustment increase to wage grade employees to prevent greater disparity between the two classifications.
“We depend greatly on federal employees who work for hourly wages,” Cole said. “As of Oct. 31, there were more than 174,000 hourly workers In the Defense Department alone and 7,634 in Oklahoma, most of which work at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City and the U.S. Army Ammunitions Plant in McAlester. The Department of Veterans Affairs and Bureau of Prisons are also impacted…Due to furloughs caused first by sequestration and more recently by the government shutdown, these dedicated employees have suffered a great deal. I am pleased that this legislation recognizes the important support hourly workers provide, like salaried, and compensates them for lost pay.”
Cartwright said the inconsistency in cost of living adjustment between the two grades of employees is “inequitable.”