Wage Hour Retiree

My letter to the editor appeared in the August 21, 2015 Dallas Morning News.

Many of you may recall that we were told we could not sue our employer, the U.S.Government. Even before I retired I carried liability insurance just in the vent I was sued and even after retirement and while doing consulting work, I was concerned about lawsuits. When I was in Washington I inherited a package of papers from my predecessor who had maintained a voluntary liability policy for managers. Then a young Dep Under Secretary came in as head of the agency and ordered me not to continue with that liability insurance. Employees could not be sued. Not exactly true as I was sued by a rag company out of El Paso a short time mater.

Today I was given an article that Federal Workers have been successful in suing the Federal Government for not paying them on time during the partial shutdown of 2013. The lawsuit, which appears to be the first such case brought by federal workers against their employer, seeks compensation of $7.25 an hour for each hour worked without on-time pay between 10-1-2013 and 10-5-2013. The cost could total anywhere from millions to as much as a billion dollars.

Federal employees making more than $100,000 a year would see their salaries slashed by thousands of dollars, under legislation introduced recently.

The Promoting Accountability in Decisions (PAID) for Progress Act, introduced by Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., would, upon passage, cut all salaries for employees making more than $100,000 by 8.7 percent. The reduction would also apply to members of Congress and the president.

Afterwards, federal employee pay would be tied to increases in the real median household income, while members of Congress would be given raises dependent on changes in the same index since being sworn into office