I can’t wait to see what kind of raise Congress gives itself in 2011. I can guarantee you it will be a heck of a lot more than the people who sacrifice constantly for this Country. Yes, the Country’s economy is headed toward imminent disaster with the amount of debt we have — but cut Congressional pay and give it to those who work the hardest. Some of our men have had more deployments than Nancy has had botox injections. There’s perspective for you!
Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011
By Karen Jowers – Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jan 31, 2010 8:38:13 ESTEXCERPT
President Obama will seek a 1.4 percent military pay raise for 2011 as part of his defense budget request that will be unveiled Feb. 1, according to a point paper issued Tuesday by the White House.
If approved by Congress, it would be the smallest annual military pay raise since the birth of the all-volunteer force in 1973, a reflection of the lingering recession’s dampening effect on wage growth and living costs. The next-smallest raise in the volunteer era was a 2 percent increase in 1988.
In contrast, the pay raise for this year, which took effect Jan. 1, was a robust 3.4 percent.
The proposed 2011 raise would match the projected increase in the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of private-sector wage growth. For 11 consecutive years, including this year, Congress set annual military raises half a percentage point above the increase in the ECI in order to whittle a perceived gap between average military and private-sector pay that supposedly has existed since 1982 and peaked in 1999. LINK TO ARTICLE
