Pay & Benefits
SSA: It could take more than a year to implement the WEP and GPO repeal
Though Congress acted on a bipartisan basis last year to pass legislation ending two controversial tax provisions that affected some federal workers and other public servants, it failed to give the Social Security Administration any money to implement it.
Updated
Workforce
Trump reportedly will offer 'buyouts' to all 2 million federal workers
The White House’s plan to offer “deferred resignations” that pay departing federal employees their salary through Sept. 30 will likely run afoul of rules governing buyout payments.
Workforce
New Schedule F guidance shows the Trump White House is rearing for a fight
Trump administration officials elected to bypass the regulatory process to rescind Biden-era rules aimed at barring Schedule F’s revival, setting up a bigger fight over the president's authority.
Pay & Benefits
Congressional Republicans mull plans to gash feds’ pay, benefits and job security
GOP lawmakers are once again considering a litany of proposals that would require federal workers to pay more in exchange for less retirement and health care benefits.
Workforce
OPM demands agencies comply with Trump’s telework order within 30 days
The State Department has already begun to implement the president’s memo cancelling telework agreements as of March 1 and remote work arrangements July 1, with exceptions for military spouses and employees with disabilities.
Workforce
How a pair of executive orders and a memo could fast track the civil service’s politicization
Good government experts warn that President Trump’s revival of Schedule F, inserting new criteria into the hiring process and demand for a list of all feds who are still on their probationary period portend a mass firing of career workers as the new administration seeks to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
Updated
Workforce
Trump: Agencies should fire 'all' bureaucrats
Atop the president’s anticipated actions this week are executive orders moving to reinstate Schedule F, reduce unions’ bargaining rights and broad rollbacks of telework at federal agencies.
Pay & Benefits
Democrats introduce bills to provide feds 4.3% average pay raise in 2026, standardize retiree COLAs
Lawmakers have reintroduced annual bills aimed at setting a marker for the upcoming federal pay raise debate and to end bifurcated cost-of-living increases for federal retirees.
Workforce
House Oversight Republicans open Congress with rants against telework, unions
The first hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was ostensibly about telework yet frequently devolved into anti-union rhetoric.
Management
OPM officials tout agency’s transformation under Biden
Leaders at the federal government’s dedicated HR agency said the organization has come a long way since being targeted for elimination by the first Trump administration.
Pay & Benefits
OPM set to finalize rules standardizing General Schedule, blue collar locality pay maps
The final rule implementing the long-requested adjustment to the Federal Wage System’s map of wage areas won’t be published until after President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
Workforce
Ernst targets D.C.-area federal workers with trio of bills
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, proposed legislation this week that would force agencies to move 30% of their D.C.-based workforce out of the region, mandate telework tracking, and push agencies to move their headquarters out of the nation’s capital.
Pay & Benefits
EEOC: The federal gender pay gap gets worse with age
The discrepancy between what men and women make in the federal government is substantially larger for those over 40 years old than that of their younger counterparts.
Pay & Benefits
OPM outlines pay, benefits rules for appointees resigning on Inauguration Day
The federal government’s HR agency also highlighted the ramifications of Jan. 20 coinciding with Martin Luther King Day for D.C.-area federal workers.
Pay & Benefits
Biden signs windfall elimination provision repeal into law
The Social Security Fairness Act ends both the WEP and the government pension offset, increasing the Social Security checks for more than 2 million retired public servants.
Pay & Benefits
Thrift Savings Plan funds end the year on the downswing
Only one of the portfolios within the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program finished December in the black.
Pay & Benefits
Biden finalizes 2% pay raise for feds next month
The president was apparently unmoved by federal employee groups and some House Democrats’ pleas to restore pay parity between the civilian and military workforces.
Pay & Benefits
Your guide to pay and benefits during a shutdown
Congress has just hours to reach an agreement to fund the government past midnight Friday, after President-elect Trump and his confidante Elon Musk scuttled a bipartisan deal earlier this week.
Workforce
Federal employee unions dismayed—but not surprised—by sudden shutdown threat
President-elect Trump and Elon Musk on Wednesday blew up a bipartisan deal to fund the government past this week, increasing the odds of a government shutdown Saturday.
Pay & Benefits