Article snippet: MORE issued an executive order Friday freezing federal workers’ pay for 2019, following through on a pledge earlier this year to nix an across-the-board pay increase. Trump had announced in August that he would cancel the 2.1 percent pay increase, which was slated to take effect in January. The order also cancels the “locality pay increase,” which adjusts paychecks based on the region of the country where workers are posted. The order does not, however, impact a 2.6 percent pay raise for the military for next year that was part of a defense spending bill Trump signed in August. The announcement making the pay freeze official comes as hundreds of thousands of federal employees head into the new year furloughed or forced to work without pay as a result of a partial government shutdown that began last week. The executive order affects most of the 2.1 million federal employees around the nation, about 1.7 million of which live in areas outside of the Washington, D.C., metro area. Last year, the Trump administration approved a 1.4 percent increase in federal pay and a 2.4 percent increase in military pay. The Senate earlier this year included a 1.9 percent pay bump in its spending plans for 2019, but the House version of the bill did not include such an increase. Lawmakers could include a pay raise for federal employees in legislation to reopen the government, but Democrats and Republicans are currently mired in debate over funds for Trump’s border wall. “We must ma... Link to the full article to read more