T here was good news and not-so-good news regarding the pay raise for 2016. The good news was that for the first time in six years, we finally got an increase in locality pay. In addition to a 1% across-the-board nationwide adjustment, federal employees will receive a locality increase between 0.1% and 0.6% depending on where they work.

Thirteen new localities were added this year, and all will receive slightly more than they would have if they’d remained in the Rest of U.S. locality. None of the locality increases was large. Only 0.3% of payroll was devoted to locality increases.

But the expansion of the number of localities to 13 additional areas was a tremendous achievement. Even though those localities got extremely small locality increases this year, it is important to recognize that they’re now “in the game” and eligible for bigger increases in the future. The not-so-good news was the size of the overall raise. At 1.3%, it is nowhere near enough to make up lost ground for five years of near-zero pay adjustments. The average pay gap between the public and private sectors is 35%, and despite a law instructing Congress to close that gap, small pay adjustments have grown that gap rather than shrink it. It will be up to AFGE members to mobilize support for bigger and better pay raises in the future.

The not-so-good news was the size of the overall raise. At 1.3%, it is nowhere near enough to make up lost ground for five years of near-zero pay adjustments. The average pay gap between the public and private sectors is 35%, and despite a law instructing Congress to close that gap, small pay adjustments have grown that gap rather than shrink it. It will be up to AFGE members to mobilize support for bigger and better pay raises in the future.