02/01/2023    Ron Freireich, DPM

Proposed Legislation Would Give More Than 2 Million Federal Workers an 8.7% Pay Raise In 2024

I was shocked when I read about the proposed bill
introduced in the House and Senate called the
Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act, or the FAIR
Act, which would give federal workers an average
8.7% pay raise next year. I was even more shocked
when I further read that this is following an
executive order signed by President Biden late last
year giving federal workers a 4.6% pay raise in
2023, an act that Congress chose not to override in
the $1.7 trillion spending bill it passed at the
end of the year. This is the same bill that waives
the 4-percent statutory pay-as-you-go (PAYGO)
sequester cuts scheduled for 2023 and partially
reduces the physician fee schedule cuts scheduled
for 2023, limiting the expected reduction in
Medicare physician pay to 2 percent in 2023.

The cuts would increase to 3.5 percent in 2024. If
you do the math, the federal workers will receive a
13.3% pay raise while physicians will be subject to
a 2% and then 3.5% pay cut over the same time
period. With the annual inflation rate running at
6.5%, we are in the hole 3.0%. Some of the reasons
stated for the pay increase were…
for years now, federal employees have risked their
health and safety working on the frontlines during
COVID, sequestration cuts, and years of pay
freezes. Sound familiar?

The authors of the bills stated that “our federal
workforce serves with dedication and distinction
every day, federal employees are our government’s
single greatest asset, and they deserve better,
whether inspecting our food, conducting medical
research, or caring for our veterans, federal
workers play an important role in our everyday
lives and deserve pay which reflects that, and
after years of pay freezes, our bill gives these
dedicated public servants a much-deserved raise."
Sound familiar? Isn't that what we do for all of
our patients every day?

Funny, this bill is called the FAIR act. Doesn’t
sound that fair to me. With wages going up
everywhere, physicians are STILL talking about PAY
CUTS. UNBELIEVEABLE! As I have been saying for
years now, when is enough going to be enough?

Ron Freireich, DPM, Cleveland, OH

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