Biden seeks to raise federal pay 4.6% while private sector pay estimated to rise just 3.4%

President Joe Biden is seeking to raise federal employee pay by 4.6%, with private sector pay estimated to rise just 3.4% this year.

The pay raise for federal employees is reportedly part of Biden's forthcoming FY2023 budget, which the White House plans to send to Congress after the president's State of the Union address on March 1. 

The White House requested a 2.7% increase for federal employees in FY2021. Pay raises for the federal workforce in FY2022 range from 2.42% to 3.21%. Federal News Radio reported that the 4.6% request for the federal workforce in the FY2023 budget is the "largest in decades."

CNBC reported in December 2021 that "compensation surveys of employers show that pay raises for 2022 will increase more than in recent years, but in the low 3% range, not nearly as much as the current level of headline inflation in the U.S. economy, which has reached 6.8%."

Inflation hit a near 40-year high in 2021, and it's projected to remain at record levels in 2022.

In 2022, U.S. employers are expected to raise worker pay 3.4% on average, based on the findings of a Willis Towers Watson survey.

The respondents in that same survey revealed that they paid average raises of 2.8% to their employees in 2021.

Just the News reached out to the offices of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Ranking Member Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to ask if they support a 4.6% increase. Neither office responded before publication.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth of Kentucky and Ranking Member Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri were not available for comment on the matter.