Clinton Will Curb Federal Workers’ Pay Hike

HONOLULU — President Clinton announced Friday that he will restrict pay increases for federal white-collar employees to 2.4% in January, barring a raise twice that amount that would have taken effect.

The 2.4% increase had been expected, since that was the figure Clinton proposed in his fiscal 1996 budget and his balanced-budget plan. The increase equals the basic pay increase he proposed for military personnel.

Without action by the President, pay increases costing an estimated 5.1% of payroll would have taken effect automatically in January under current federal law.

The 2.4% raise consists of two parts: a 2% increase in the base pay schedule received by employees worldwide and a 0.4% overall payroll increase to be used for locality pay adjustments in the 48 states other than Alaska and Hawaii.