OPM Payscale 2026

[Anonymous]

I wish they could have frozen pay but raises the pay cap so that pay compression didn't keep getting worse. But I know they didn't have a way to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ I was an Obama supporter and was there in the freezing cold for the second inauguration.

But it's important to acknowledge that he was awful for federal employees. It was widely recognized that he negotiated against himself when it came to federal employees, offering up huge concessions at the outset of negotiations with Republicans. Pay raises were nonexistent or awful, retirement contributions increased dramatically, and paid parental leave never happened. The tea party outwitted him when it came to federal employees. It's a bit much to hold Obama completely blameless for 8 years of effective pay cuts that happened under his watch.

NP. I started in 2008 as a GS 7 making 39k. The lack of pay raises really hurt me in my early 20s. I really couldn't afford anything. 1% seems fine now to me since I'm married with dual incomes now and make significantly more, but 39k was hard to live on. I'm sure GS 7s and 9s still feel the pinch even now though with the 1%, especially since health insurance rose a lot more than 1%.