Civilian federal workers in Hawaii might not get a pay raise

Some 33,400 civilian federal workers in Hawaii would not get an expected raise of 2.1 percent in January if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to freeze workers’ pay.

Civilian federal workers in the islands earn $2.6 billion annually, according to Eugene Tian, chief economist with the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Most of the Hawaii workers also earn a cost of living allowance, according to Ryan Mims, political action coordinator for the 12th district of the largest federal workers union, the American Federation of Government Employees.

The AFGE’s 12th district covers Hawaii, Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Guam.

By comparison, the state employs 80,000 civilian workers, and the four counties combined have 20,000 workers — who together earn a total of $5 billion annually, Tian said.

Mims said Trump’s threat to freeze workers’ pay in 2019 follows a pattern of hostility toward federal employees.

Following Trump’s highly touted tax cut, which is projected to increase the national debt, Mims said the president “is trying to balance the budget on the backs of workers.”

An estimated 600,000 federal employees across the country are military veterans, Mims said. So Trump is “really cutting the pay of veterans who served our country and would like to continue serving our country.”

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said, “Donald Trump’s proposal to pay for his huge tax cut by slashing pay for federal workers is jaw-dropping hypocrisy, even by this administration’s standards. Congress has the power to reject this move and ensure our nation’s federal workforce receives the support they need, and I’ll be fighting to make sure that happens.”

Citing budget constraints, Trump said he was nixing a 2.1 percent across-the-board raise for most workers as well as separate locality pay increases averaging 25.7 percent.

“We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” Trump said. The president last year signed a package of tax cuts that is forecast to add about $1.5 trillion to federal deficits over 10 years.

As workers across the country head into the Labor Day weekend, Trump cited the “significant” cost of the federal workforce and called for their pay to be based on performance and designed to recruit, retain and reward “high-performing Federal employees and those with critical skill sets.”

Democrats criticized Trump for moving to cancel the scheduled pay raise, citing tax cuts he signed into law in December. That law provided steep tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families.

Under the law the 2.1 percent raise takes effect automatically unless the president and Congress act to change it. Congress is currently debating a proposal for a slightly lower, 1.9 percent across-the-board raise to be included in a funding bill that would require Trump’s signature to keep most government functions operating past September.

Unions representing the 2 million-member federal workforce urged Congress to pass the 1.9 percent pay raise.

“President Trump’s plan to freeze wages for these patriotic workers next year ignores the fact that they are worse off today financially than they were at the start of the decade,” said J. David Cox Sr., national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some 700,000 federal workers.

Cox said federal worker pay and benefits have been cut by more than $200 billion since 2011.

Congress has approved legislation to give military service members a 2.6 percent pay raise, the biggest in nine years, but funding must still be approved.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.