Most Feds Will Get Retroactive Raise this Pay Period

The federal government’s largest payroll processor announced Tuesday that most civilian federal employees will see the average 1.9 percent pay raise, authorized by Congress in February, in their paychecks next week.

The National Finance Center, which is housed within the Agriculture Department but does payroll for dozens of federal agencies, said that it has implemented the pay increase, which includes a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise and an average of 0.5 percent increase in locality pay, for the current pay period that began on April 7.

Although President Trump signed a bill in February authorizing the pay raise retroactive to the first pay period of 2019, there was a significant delay in implementation. Trump did not issue an executive order overriding Trump’s decision last December to institute a pay freeze for civilian federal workers until March 28, six weeks after the raise became law.

The National Finance Center said Tuesday that “most” employees will see both the pay raise reflected in their pay checks next week, as well as a lump sum payment accounting for the raise’s retroactivity to the beginning of the year.

However, some hurdles still remain for some workers.

“Other employees will receive their salary increase for [the current pay period], without the retroactive funds included, as authorized by their agency,” NFC wrote in an email to customers. “The pay raise may not be received immediately if there are any intervening personnel actions processed [since January], such as but not limited to within grade increases, promotions, etc. This scenario requires corrective personnel actions [by agency human resources offices].”