Federal employees will see a smaller rise in their lodging per diem for official travel in fiscal 2025, but a larger meals and incidental expenses reimbursement rate Oscar Wong / GETTY IMAGES
GSA: Per diem rates for federal workers will increase this fall
The amount of money federal agencies will reimburse employees for traveling expenses will increase for both lodging and for meals and incidentals beginning in October.
The General Services Administration announced last week that both lodging and meal and incidental per diem rates will increase in fiscal 2025.
Each year, GSA updates the reimbursement rates that it offers federal employees who travel on official business, based on the average daily rate at hotels in each region of the continental United States. Beginning Oct. 1, the agency said it will increase the base lodging rate from $107 to $110 per night.
That increase of $3 is much smaller than the $9 jump GSA announced in fiscal 2024, as the government’s acquisition agency tried to cope with inflation. But unlike last year, when reimbursements or meals and other incidentals remained flat, GSA will increase reimbursement for meals and incidental expenses from $59 to $68 this fall. And Beginning Oct. 1, non-standard tiers will increase from the current range of $59-$79 to $68-$92.
The increase to meals and incidental expenses is the first since fiscal 2022.
GSA also announced that it will remove a total of six non-standard areas from its list of regions with higher lodging and incidental costs than the standard rate on Oct 1: Ft. Wayne, Ind., Canton, Ohio, Mentor, Ohio, East Greenwich and Warwick, R.I., Waco, Texas, and Wisconsin Dells, Wis. In fiscal 2025, there will be 296 non-standard areas, the agency reported.
GSA has a tool where federal employees can check the per diem rates throughout the continental U.S. beginning in October on its website.