By: MELISSA HAYES
June 12, 2009
Burlington County Times
Rep. John Adler wants workers at county bases to be on same pay scale as those at Lakehurst.
Civilians working at Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base have been earning less than their counterparts at Lakehurst Naval Engineering Station.
"It's not fair," said Wrightstown Councilman Jim Severns, who worked at Fort Dix from 1978 to 2004. "It really, really impacted a lot of people and cost me a lot of money during the years I worked at Fort Dix, but we didn't have a choice."
While employees long have known of the discrepancy, the federal government recently learned of it while working to merge the three bases into the nation's only tri-service installation, Joint Base McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst.
U.S. Rep. John Adler, D-3rd of Cherry Hill, released a report Thursday detailing the difference in pay and has introduced legislation that would bring civilian salaries at Fort Dix and McGuire to the same level as Lakehurst.
"I think it's a very necessary step to take to make the tri-service base work," Adler said.
The issue comes down to location and federal pay scale. Lakehurst, which is in Ocean County, is in the New York pay area. Fort Dix and McGuire, which are in Burlington County, are in the Philadelphia pay area.
Because of this, an employee earning $52,398 at Lakehurst would earn $49,651 for the same job at Fort Dix or McGuire, a difference of nearly $3,000.
Civilian employees hold a variety of jobs, including maintenance, grounds, firefighters, mechanics, nurses, engineers and clerical.
Adler said the disparity is discouraging to civilians at Fort Dix and McGuire who do the same work but are earning less. At the same time, he said employees at Lakehurst are concerned their salaries will be frozen until their counterparts catch up.
Equalizing the salaries would maintain morale and encourage civilians losing their jobs at Fort Monmouth, who were on the same pay scale as Lakehurst, to seek work at the joint installation, Adler said.
Fort Monmouth is closing and about 5,400 jobs are being relocated to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, he said.
"We need to keep jobs in New Jersey," Adler said. "Civilian employees on the joint base live in our communities, shop at our local businesses and deserve the same pay as their colleagues."
Adler said about 2,600 civilians are employed at McGuire and Fort Dix. In order to increase their salaries, Congress needs to find $3 million within the $663 billion federal defense budget.
"It's a relatively small percentage of the federal defense budget in order to make the only tri-service base in the country succeed going forward," he said.
Adler said his bill has bipartisan support and he hopes to see funding included in the defense budget in the coming weeks.
"I'm optimistic that we can get this accomplished," he said. "I really think it's critical."
Severns said the legislation would help a lot of people.
"That would be great if they could do something," he said. "It's about time the government started treating everyone equally."
As of Oct. 1, all three bases are coming under unified administrative control of the Air Force's 87th Air Base Wing, a new command headed by Col. Gina Grosso that will take care of all the physical plant operations at the joint base, from policing the gates to fixing the plumbing.
The Army Reserve, Navy and Air Force will retain direct control over their commands on the base, but support workers such as civil engineers will become Air Force employees.
The Department of Defense could make base pay levels conform through its own administrative processes but that would take years, compared to doing it through the Congressional appropriations process, Adler said. If the bill, HR-2714 is approved, Department of Defense officials would offset the estimated $3 million payroll increase through savings elsewhere in the defense budget, he said.
The measure is co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., whose district includes Lakehurst; Reps. Rob Andrews and Rush Holt, D-N.J.; and Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J.
