Trump orders pay freeze for federal workers

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued an order Friday to freeze federal employee salary rates at current levels in 2019, although a chance remains that employees will still receive a raise.

Trump’s order was expected since he has advocated a freeze all year. It however was necessary under the complex law governing federal pay to prevent a large raise from taking effect by default, due to Congress not making a decision regarding a raise.

The order comes as some 800,000 federal employees, out of a workforce of 2.1 million, are in unpaid status due to the partial government shutdown that now has lasted a week and is virtually guaranteed to last at least a number of days more. Of those, about 380,000 have been furloughed while the rest are still on the job, although without pay, due to the nature of their work.