Normally, federal employees have to take sick leave for preventive screening, such as mammograms or prostate cancer screens. However, if the employee has less than 80 hours of sick leave, they can ask for up to 4 hours of excused leave each year for health screenings. This small benefit can be particularly helpful for people who have used up their sick leave, such as new parents who have recently returned to work.
The path to deciding the amount of the annual pay raise for federal workers is long and winding, but a major milestone was passed today when the House Appropriations Committee approved a 3.9% raise in the markup of the 2009 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. This matches the raise being proposed for the military and exceeds the 2.9% being requested by the White House. The bill also contains a one year moratorium in A-76 competitions, which is the process that allows public-private competitions for federal work.
For many working parents, scraping together leave and money for maternal and paternal leave is one of the more difficult tasks of bringing a child home. As many federal employees find out the hard way, the voluntary leave transfer program (VLTP) is the only practical way to get enough paid leave to cover the the 3 or so months that it takes to get the child and parents ready for daycare, and it’s rare that people get more than a few days of donated leave. We’ve certainly witnessed coworkers forced to put their infants into daycare at 6 weeks to keep the paychecks coming, and this can be hard on both the babies and parents, especially given the number of viruses floating around the average daycare facility. It’s questionable whether these stressed out, sleep deprived, and sick workers benefit the government.
The New Jersey newspaper Ashbury Park Press has updated their federal employees search so that it now lists most 2007 federal employee salaries. It might be surprising that many federal employee names and salaries are public knowledge, but it’s been the long standing policy of our government that this information be made available to taxpayers. It’s certainly fascinating to see how much coworkers make when mapping out a career path.
A surprising number of feds don’t know about FSAFEDS, the flexible spending accounts administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). These accounts let you pay for health and child care with before tax dollars, resulting in savings of 20-40% over after tax dollars, yielding savings of up to $4000 per year depending your tax rate. There are two kinds of accounts most people use:
In general, yes, if you have at least 18 months of service and are married at least 9 months. The 9 month rule doesn’t apply if there was a child born of the marriage or your death was accidental.
Today, I saw an advertisement on the side of a bus shelter that said “Move your old TSP or 401k account to [Major investment firm]“. I’m not sure what an “old” TSP account is, but the advertised move is almost guaranteed to move your money into someone else’s pocket. Why is this?
When your child turns 22 or gets married before that age, they will be automatically dropped from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHB), even if they are in school. If they don’t have a job with health benefits, they will either have to obtain their own insurance or you can enroll them under Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC).
FEDERALDaily reports that on May 7th, the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee recommended a 3.9% raise (cost of living adjustment) for members of the armed services. In most years, civilian federal worker salary increases follow the same formula, although not without a fight.
Curiously, the most recent measurement of year to year inflation by the Labor Department is also 3.9%.
I was talking to a friend who was eligible to enroll in the Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) which is the federal equivalent to a 401(k) retirement savings plans many companies provide. To my shock, he wasn’t enrolled. When I told him he was leaving free money on the table, it got his attention. So if you are one of the roughly 10% of federal employees that don’t contribute or the additional 20% who don’t contribute at least 5% of your salary, read on.
