WHICH GS GRADES PAY BELOW THE MINIMUM WAGE?
Thanks to SEIU and a few other justice-minded folks the City of Seattle has set the minimum wage at $15.00 an hour, giving over 100,000 workers around the city a raise. While one’s minimum wage depends upon which federal or local law applies to them, this news means hundreds of federal employees in that city will now be paid less than the typical fast food worker, janitor, and clerk. In fact, here are the feds in the Seattle area getting less than the private sector minimum wage: Anyone at:
- GS-4, Step 2 or below,
- GS-3, Step 5 or below
- GS-2, Step 10 or below
- GS-1, Step 10 or below
Maybe it is time federal sector unions insisted the GS scale be modified to ensure that no one on that (or any other federal scale for that matter) be paid less than the minimum wage in their locality. That not only sounds like justice to us, but good management policy. After all, why would IRS, SSA, DVA, HUD, or any federal agency want to lose trained staff because they get paid more to say a few hundred times a day, “Would you like fries with that?”
