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Years of pay caps have pulled the long-standing pay system for blue-collar federal employees away from the structure\u2019s original intent.\nThe Federal Wage System (FWS), covering about 192,000 federal employees, was initially created to try to keep wages aligned with \u201cprevailing,\u201d or market rates in localized areas. But for the last 45 years, since fiscal 1979, many blue-collar feds have seen limits on their annual pay raises.\nThe intention of the pay caps is to ensure annual raises don\u2019t exceed the raises that General Schedule (GS) employees get, and to address budgetary concerns, the Office of Personnel Management, which manages the pay system, has said.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices