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1993-04-16
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41 lines
04/14
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government agency charged with controlling
inflation has given its employees raises nearly two-thirds greater
than last year's inflation rate, the House Banking Committee
chairman said Wednesday.
Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-Texas, in a letter of complaint to
President Clinton, said the Federal Reserve staff reporting to the
Board of Governors in Washington is getting a 4.8 percent raise this
year.
Meanwhile, employees working for the Fed's 12 regional banks,
quasi-private organizations, are getting raises of 4.3 percent.
That compares to an inflation rate for 1992 of 2.9 percent. Wages
and salaries nationally, as measured by the Labor Department's
Employment Cost Index, went up just 2.7 percent last year.
Meanwhile, other federal employees received a 3.7 percent increase
in January.
"There is a certain irony about the nation's chief inflation
fighters giving themselves raises greater than the rate of
inflation," Gonzalez wrote.
He also complained that 12 senior Fed staff members in Washington will earn
$161,800 this year, compared to Cabinet officers, who receive $148,400, and
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose salary is $133,400.
"I ... ask the Federal Reserve to realign its top staff salaries
with the rest of the federal government's employees," Gonzalez said.
The Fed, as the nation's independent central bank, determines its
own budget. Board members, who serve 14-year terms, cannot be
removed by the president once sworn in. Gonzalez has introduced
legislation that would bring the Fed under greater oversight.
In a March 11 letter to Gonzalez, Greenspan said the Federal
Reserve's salary structure was revamped in the late 1980s to
encourage retention of senior employees who could draw top pay in
private jobs.
Gonzalez also complained that the high-salaried positions at the
Federal Reserve are filled almost exclusively by white males. Of 34
staff members in Washington earning $125,000 or more, one is a woman
and one is listed as "non-white." Of 82 high-salaried employees at
the regional banks, 14 are women and three are non-white.
"Banks cannot take seriously the federal government's commitment
to eradicate discrimination as long as agencies like the Federal
Reserve remain as exclusive as ever," Gonzalez said.