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STATEMENT: Trump Once Again Puts The Wealthy Above Working Families By Eliminating Pay Raises for 2 Million Public Servants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, August 30, 2018

PRESS CONTACT:
press@notonepenny.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to reports that President Donald Trump has eliminated pay raises for federal employees, Not One Penny spokesperson Ryan Thomas released the following statement:

“Yet again, President Trump has put millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations above working families, this time hurting federal employees dedicated to public service. This decision is morally bankrupt and shows that Donald Trump’s ‘fiscal responsibility’ stems from wanting to help wealthy donors’ bottom lines.

“Trump believes that the way to spur the economy is to give wealthy CEOs and Wall Street bankers tax cuts worth millions of dollars while stealing from working families. With stagnating wages and rising health care costs, it’s clear the Trump administration is making it even harder for workers trying to make ends meet and harming our economy.”

Key facts about the decision:

According to the Office of Personnel Management, there are just over 2 million federal employees.

Trump and Republicans promised America’s workers a $4,000 raise from their tax law. While a majority of Americans have failed to see an increase, Trump is now actively reneging on that promise for 2 million government employees.

The workers’ raise would cost $25 billion, a tiny fraction the $1.9 trillion price tag of Trump’s tax law.

  • The deduction that Trump introduced for passthrough businesses—like his own Trump Organization—will cost the federal government $47 billion in just one year.
  • The tax cut that billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway received was an estimated $29 billion.

According to a Roosevelt Institute report, eliminating these raises will overwhelmingly hurt communities of color, with black workers making up a disproportionate share of public employees.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages for workers are not keeping up with inflation, meaning that in July, real wage growth was down 0.2 percent over the previous year.

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