DOE freezes contractor employees' pay
Freeze to affect approximately 75,000 workers
The Energy Department has announced a two-year freeze on salary increases and bonuses for department contractors who manage day-to-day operations at certain agency sites, including national laboratories.
The contractor employee pay freeze follows the Obama administration’s recent proposal of a two-year pay freeze for all civilian federal employees.
“As our nation continues to recover from these challenging economic times, households and small businesses across the country are making sacrifices,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Dec. 17. “In this spirit, we are asking our contractor employees, who are doing important research, operations and environmental cleanup work, to join the federal workforce in playing a part.”
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Senate leaders withdrew an omnibus spending package Dec. 16 that included the administration’s federal employee pay freeze proposal, and it is unclear how and when the governmentwide freeze would be implemented.
DOE's freeze will affect approximately 75,000 workers at 28 agency sites and will go into effect Jan. 1. For salary increases that have already been approved and implemented, the freeze will begin at the start of the next salary increase cycle and also last two years, according to the department.
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Alyah Khan is a staff writer covering IT policy.