Hawai'i Federal workers might lose COLA

[Miulang]

Uh oh. One of the things that Pres. Bush included in his budget for next year is the phasing out of the cost of living allowance (http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2007/02/05/daily15.html?f=et71&hbx=e_du)(COLA) most federal workers who live and work in Hawai'i receive. The COLA is about the only thing that allows federal workers to come out ahead in Hawai'i.

Anyone who works for the feds or has relatives who work for the feds in Hawai'i should get in touch with your Congresspeople and tell them to reject this proposal!

President Bush has called for the phase out of cost of living adjustments for federal employees in Hawaii and Alaska in his fiscal 2008 budget.

Sen. Daniel Akaka said Monday he has requested a briefing on the proposal from the Office of Personnel Management, which administers so-called nonforeign C.O.L.A.s.

...Since 1948, federal employees in Hawaii, Guam, and other noncontiguous U.S. locales have gotten nonforeign C.O.L.A.s to keep their pay commensurate with their Mainland counterparts.


Miulang

[tikiyaki]

Uh oh. One of the things that Pres. Bush included in his budget for next year is the phasing out of the cost of living allowance (http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2007/02/05/daily15.html?f=et71&hbx=e_du)(COLA) most federal workers who live and work in Hawai'i receive. The COLA is about the only thing that allows federal workers to come out ahead in Hawai'i.

Anyone who works for the feds or has relatives who work for the feds in Hawai'i should get in touch with your Congresspeople and tell them to reject this proposal!



Miulang

Well, our current idiot in charge has to pay for his stupid war with something, cos it ain't gonna come outta HIS paycheck. :mad:

[beaker]

Wow, that would be about a 20% pay cut.

[StinkyTheGrump]

Actually COLA is currently at 25% of base salary and is not subject to federal income tax; so, if removed and not replaced by locality pay, it would be more than a 25% pay cut in terms of take-home pay:( Bush's comment "My goal is to ensure that federal workers in Hawaii and the other noncontiguous regions are not disadvantaged when it comes to their retirement...", is referring to the policy of COLA not counting towards retirement calculation while locality pay (what continental US - CONUS gets) is counted towards retirement. The replacement of COLA with locality pay in HI would probably lead to a cut in pay but would obviously be a boon for those who retire from here. The pay cut would result from locality pay being based on cost of labor locally compared with the average cost of labor in CONUS- locality pay has nothing to do with cost of living. AFAIK, salaries (cost of labor) in HI are not commensurate with the higher cost of living here soooo I doubt the locality pay would approach 25%...but we'll see I guess.