Energy Dept: No Pay Raises for Contractors With federal employees’ pay now frozen, the Energy Department has imposed a two-year freeze on salary and bonus payments for contractor employees working at its national laboratories and other facilities. The freeze, effective Jan. 1, affects 75,000 workers at 28 sites. Contractors manage the department’s major facilities and far outnumber federal employees. “As our nation continues to recover from these challenging economic times, households and small businesses across the country are making sacrifices,” Chu said in a statement. “In this spirit, we are asking our contractor employees, who are doing important research, operations, and environmental cleanup work, to join the federal workforce in playing a part.” Employees of facilities such as Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories include large numbers of highly educated scientists and engineers. Many of Energy’s contract employees are engaged in delicate cleanup operations at nuclear weapons sites. Chu said, “Our national labs, the country’s crown jewels for leading research and development, will continue to attract and retain the nation’s top scientists, and pursue some of the most important discoveries that will lead us into the 21st century.” The freeze applies to all facility-wide wage and salary increases.