GovernmentExecutive.com

In yesterday's GovExec Live! chat with Senior Executives Association President Carol Bonosaro and in Karen Rutzick's story on law enforcement officer pay, the subject of cost-of-living allowances came up. I was reminded that while federal employees get annual pay raises that at least partly serve to blunt the effects of inflation, relatively few of them get official COLAs. That is, to put it bluntly, because the government cares less about its employees' problems making ends meet than it does about being able to recruit and retain workers. I always remember what former OPM Director Constance Newman told me back in 1991, in a discussion about the then-emerging concept of locality pay. "I've tried to explain to people," she said, "this is not a cost-of-living adjustment. These increases are because as an employer we are having problems, not because you as an employee have a problem." Update: Federal Times happens to have a story today about employees in Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories--who do get COLAs--suing to get locality pay, too. The reason? Locality differentials are figured into retirement calculations, but COLAs aren't.