Federal Employees Get 2.8% Pay Raise: Clinton Acts to Pre-Empt Bigger One

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Federal employees got a little raise yesterday, one President Clinton called "appropriate" and "meaningful."

In a letter to Congress, Mr. Clinton outlined a 2.8 percent pay raise for 2 million-plus workers, to take effect in January. Though on vacation in Massachusetts, the president was facing a stiff deadline.

Under terms of a 1990 law, white-collar executive branch employees would have received a 10 percent raise in January had he not set a lower rate by Aug. 31.

The greater increase would have cost, the president noted, $7.9 billion in 1998 alone, jeopardizing efforts to balance the budget by 2002 and forcing cuts in discretionary spending.