President Barack Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for federal employees Monday, and warned the American public that the move is the first of many difficult decisions that must be made to reduce the nation’s mounting deficits.
The freeze would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those working at the Department of Defense, but would not affect military personnel. The freeze is expected to save more than $5 billion in savings over two years, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over 10 years, White House officials said.
Congress is not covered by Obama’s order, but lawmakers voted last April to freeze their pay, with the House and Senate opting to forgo an automatic $1,600 annual cost-of-living increase. House members and senators now are paid $174,000 a year. Their last pay increase was $4,700 a year at beginning of 2009.
The president’s pay of $400,000 a year was fixed by Congress in January 2001. It has not changed since then.
Shortly after taking office in January 2009, Obama froze salaries of top White House aides. He proposed extending that freeze to political appointees across the government in last year’s budget, and also eliminated bonuses for political appointees.
The pay freeze would not affect bonuses or step increases for federal employees.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.