Spending bill extends 1% pay raise to blue-collar feds

Federal Times: Congressional negotiators have agreed on a $1.1 trillion spending package that would avert a new government shutdown, set federal agency funding levels for fiscal 2014 and give a 1 percent pay raise to more than 200,000 blue-collar federal workers at military depots and other facilities.

Those “wage-grade” employees were not covered by the 1 percent increase that President Obama ordered for workers paid under the General Schedule, starting this month. After a three-year freeze on federal pay scales, unions had lobbied hard to include the wage-grade workforce through legislation.

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