Biden Has Issued an Executive Order Finalizing an Average 4.6% Pay Raise for Feds

President Biden on Friday issued an executive order implementing his plan to provide federal civilian employees with an average 4.6% pay raise in January.

As proposed in his fiscal 2023 budget plan last March, the raise provides federal workers with a 4.1% across-the-board raise to basic pay, as well as an average 0.5% increase in locality pay.

The 4.6% figure marks the largest pay increase for federal workers since 2002, when the George W. Bush administration provided them with the same percentage increase.

But with year-over-year inflation over 7% as of November and feds’ share of insurance premiums through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program growing by an average of 8.7% next year, federal employee groups had hoped for a more generous pay increase of 5.1% as proposed by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and other Democratic lawmakers. Despite their lobbying efforts, neither the House nor Senate opted to override the president’s pay raise proposal in their appropriations packages for fiscal 2023, effectively endorsing Biden’s plan.

The 4.6% raise marks an increase over the 2.7% average pay boost federal workers received in 2022.

The Office of Personnel Management now must publish pay tables outlining the pay raise across all General Schedule pay grades and locality pay areas. Once updated, they will be available on the OPM website. The pay raise will go into effect for the first full pay period of 2023.