US President Joe Biden announced an average pay raise of 2% for federal civilian employees, effective January 1, 2025. Meanwhile, across-the-board pay is set to grow by 1.7% for all federal workers. The Biden Administration also announced locality-based average pay hikes of 0.3%. Although inflation has considerably cooled from record-highs of 7% in 2021 to 2.9% for the 12 months ending July 2024, the pay raise might not be enough to keep up with elevated living costs. Furthermore, the hike is much lower than the 4.6% raise at the end of 2022 and 5.2% at the end of last year. The 2% hike for 2025 is also less than what private sector employees received. Bureau of Labor Statistics data revealed that the average worker's weekly wage for July jumped 3.3% year over year.
President Biden highlighted the new pay rates will make federal jobs lucrative while being fiscally responsible. "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," he said. "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 labour market and fiscal constraints." Growing optimism around September rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve as it approaches its 2% inflation target could mean further financial relief for US workers as living costs gradually normalise.
Federal Workers Worried About Trump's Plan To Radically Overhaul The Workforce
Many federal workers are concerned about former US President Donald Trump returning to power and restructuring the federal workforce radically by replacing countless civil servants with like-minded allies. Trump has also expressed his disdain for the FBI and federal prosecutors who investigated him over several allegations in recent years. He reportedly hinted at exercising sweeping control over a large section of the federal workforce by relocating up to 100,000 federal jobs based on his Agenda 47 roadmap.
Biden Pushes New Rule To Protect Federal Workers If Trump Is Reelected
Meanwhile, President Biden announced new regulations in April to make it more challenging to replace federal workers. The rules will reduce federal job risks if Trump wins the upcoming elections and reinstates Schedule F by barring career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees. It will counter Trump's "Schedule F" executive order in 2020, which was aimed at reclassifying thousands of federal jobs and weakening job security protections. Biden scrapped the 2020 rule as he prioritised civil service protections. "It will now be much harder for any president to arbitrarily remove the nonpartisan professionals who staff our federal agencies just to make room for hand-picked partisan loyalists," National Treasury Employees Union president Doreen Greenwald had stated. Meanwhile, Biden expects the legislature to tackle corruption and partisan interference to enable federal employees to deliver for US citizens.
Rob Shriver, deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management, added that the new rule will ensure that protections cannot be removed away via any "technical, HR process" that Trump's "Schedule F sought to do." He continued that Biden's new law will help build citizens' trust in federal employees to fully apply their expertise in their jobs, regardless of their political beliefs.
