As the non-government worker 'slaves' away, working 80 hours straight at Toys'r'Us, or earning an 'unlivable' wage at McDonalds, President Obama as used an executive order to activate a 1% pay raise for all government workers. As the WSJ reports [7], the 4.4 milion federal employees are receiving their first across-the-board pay bump since a 2% increase in January 2010 (though notably agency directors must meet this cost within their existing budgets - not collecting any new funds to pay for it). Of course, even by government statistical standards, this is still not keeping up with inflation, but hey, it's better than nothing.
Via WSJ, [7]
Federal employees in January will get their first across-the-board pay raise in several years, as President Barack Obama moved Monday to activate a 1% increase for all government workers.
The increase came by an executive order and was expected. The raise was requested by the White House earlier in the year and Congress didn’t take the necessary steps to prevent it from taking place.
...
The Obama administration in previous years agreed to freeze the pay of federal employees as part of the ongoing deficit-reduction fights in Congress.
It’s the first across-the-board pay bump for federal employees since federal employees received a 2% increase in January 2010. Federal employees were able to collect bonuses, overtime and promotion pay raises.
Federal agencies must accommodate the pay increases within their budgets and they do not collect additional funds because of Mr. Obama’s order.