Updated Locality Pay Survey

Agree

I am a VHA employee that lives in Orlando. I was born here and have seen the rents increase up to 60% over the past 10 years! This is unsustainable and I am 51 years old and will be forced to find a roommate later this year if my pay does not increase and/or rents (cost of living) is reduced. There is NO reason that Orlando should be in "Rest of US" for locality pay!!!

I am living pay check to pay check and am a single parent with not enough money to feed my little one. I think it doesn't make sense why my rent has gone up $600 and will continue to go up along with groceries that I can't afford gas to get to work. Is there a program that I could do to get vouchers for food and gas. The county next to my county because I live in Orange County Florida is less expensive and they get more locality pay which is Brevard County. Can someone actually come out and do the research with boots on the ground. I implore you.

Raise the locality pay we are struggling.

3 years ago Featured

I came from the Baltimore/Washington area where locality pay is over 30% and the cost of living here is just as high as it was there. Please consider our locality request

YES

Totally supporting this petition and hoping for locality validation as soon as possible

agree

Thanks

Agree

Cost of living is very high here in Florida and we should be paid equally as the bigger cities.

I am a veteran FYI

Agree. Orlando area is no longer a rural community with cost of living expenses matching areas like NY, San Fran, Miami, Chicago. This is leading to difficulty to recruit staff to fill the many open positions in the Orlando VA and causing burnout in the staff that are employed trying to give the best care they can to our nation's veterans.

I am I veteran employee, I transferred from Arkansas to Orlando, Fl where my cost of living more than doubled but, my pay remained the same. I agree with and support this letter.

I will support this effort in any way that I can. Including in person events.

Agree with the letter 100%

Please consider reviewing the locality pay increase. The Orlando VAMC is the fastest growing VA in our Nation. In order to attract AND KEEP treating professionals and highly experience staff, the pay must offered must be reflective of the cost of living for the area. Our VAMC has strived through the pandemic and loss of staff to continually provide quality healthcare for our Heroes. If we wish to retain staff and continue to provide the same or better care, we must offer competitive pay. Please consider an increase of the locality to reflect the growth of our State due to the influx of new residents and healthcare needs of our aging Veteran population. Thank you.

Expenses are getting exponentially expensive but our income stays the same. I had to take out a loan from tsp just to stay up float. Please consider increasing our salary.

Readily available are data for: open positions in every discipline w/ requests for overtime employee shortages, delay from hire to start date, employee turnover, increase costs of housing as well as goods and services all indicate that reasonable locality pay is necessary. We, the staff or ORL VA, endeavor to provide the best care for the Veterans with premium employees to deliver the care. To attract, hire and keep the best physicians, nurses, therapist, aids, SW and support staff of every discipline, Orlando VA must be competitive as an employer. Orlando VA is being closely watched and the staff works diligently to become a Benchmark for health care to serve those that served our country. It is time for the Employees of Orlando VA to be given a demonstration of appreciation for the non-stop work during the unprecedented threat they have endured without waiver. The test of fortitude since 2020 has been demonstrated by the individuals that perform the day to day tasks of caring for our Veterans. Staff have been concerned for the health of the patients, the risk to their own families should they contract communicable illness and take that home. It is time for gratitude to be demonstrated to each department and every single employee of the Orlando VA. Ignoring the hard work and dedication is a powerful message and historic insult to the staff. Dietary, CLC, EMS, ED, Nursing, Physicians, Providers, Social Workers, Therapists, Transport staff (I apologize to any discipline or services line I have inadvertently left off) to be given appreciation. Please consider this demonstration of appreciation for the commitment we have already performed. We want to set the standard of care that all others aim to achieve and with provisions to obtain and retain high caliber staff, we can achieve this goal.

The cost of living in Orlando, FL is very high and the pay low to provide for my family.