President Barack Obama on Nov. 30 again called for most federal employees to receive an average 2.0 percent pay raise in January.

If the government followed the statutory formula set by law, employees under the General Schedule would receive an average pay increase of 18.9 percent next year — a 2.4 percent overall pay raise and average locality pay adjustments of 16.5 percent.

But Obama said in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Joe Biden that the government can't afford the $22.6 billion that would cost in 2010, and said it would be inappropriate to hand out such hefty raises when millions of Americans are out of work or dealing with other financial troubles.

"Our country continues to face serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare, and most Americans would not understand or accept that federal employees should receive an average pay increase of 18.9 percent while many of their fellow citizens are facing employment cutbacks or unemployment," Obama said.

Obama said the average 2.0 percent pay raise he wants would cost the government $2.7 billion next year. Agencies would have a hard time finding the cash for anything larger and would likely have to reduce hiring or make other cutbacks to cover the cost of a bigger raise. Obama also said locality payments should stay flat next year.

Obama said the smaller-than-usual pay raise would probably not affect the government's ability to recruit and retain talented employees.

"The GS ‘quit' rate continues to be very low (2.1 percent on an annual basis), well below the overall average ‘quit' rate in private enterprise," Obama said.

The House has approved a 2.0 percent average pay raise, but the Senate is considering a larger 2.9 percent average pay raise for civilian employees.

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