President Advances 2% Pay Hike for Civilian Federal Employees
WASHINGTON — Civilian employees of the federal government would see a 2% pay increase in 2025 under a plan President Joe Biden sent to Congress on Friday.
Transmission of the so-called “alternative plan for pay adjustments” is the first step in finalizing pay increases for all general schedule employees of the federal government.
According to the letter, which was sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, all civilian employees will see a 1.7% across-the-board increase, as well as an average 0.3% locality pay increase, resulting in an overall average increase of 2%.
“We must attract, recruit and retain a skilled workforce with fair compensation in order to keep our government running, deliver services and meet our nation’s challenges today and tomorrow,” the president wrote.
“This alternative pay plan decision will continue to allow the federal government to employ a well‑qualified federal workforce on behalf of the American people, acknowledging wage growth in the labor market and fiscal constraints,” he said.
The president said the increase is “consistent with the assumption” in the 2025 budget he unveiled in March. It is also the smallest annual raise enacted during his time in the White House.
Last year, federal civilian employees received a 5.2% raise.
Congress, of course, could decide to enact a different raise amount, though given the current state of the appropriations process, that appears unlikely.
If it doesn’t act, the president will enact next year’s pay raise by executive order.
When Biden first announced his budget proposal last spring, several employee unions expressed their disappointment at his raise proposal, complaining that it failed to keep pace with inflation and noting that it was less than half the 4.5% increase proposed for military personnel.
Among them was Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, who said his members were extremely disappointed in the way Biden’s budget “turns its back on the long-standing practice of pay raise parity for civilian and military employees of the federal government.”
Also weighing in were a number of lawmakers on the Hill, including Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who introduced legislation calling for a much fatter, 8.7% raise for civilians in the federal workforce.
Speaking at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing about his proposal last May, Connolly deemed the president’s proposal “very inadequate … for hardworking federal employees.”
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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