Biden Declares Intent for Federal Pay Raise in 2024

President Joe Biden’s recent letter to House and Senate leaders formalized his plan to increase federal civilian employee pay by 5.2% in 2024, which would give these workers their biggest raise since the Carter administration.

The Aug. 31 letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Vice President (and Senate President) Kamala Harris laid out Biden’s alternative pay plan for pay adjustments for federal civilian employees covered by the General Schedule and certain other pay systems, effective on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2024.

For next year, Biden has determined an across-the-board base pay increase of 4.7%, with locality pay bumps averaging 0.5%, resulting in an overall average raise of 5.2%, according to the letter, noting that this percentage would be consistent with the assumption in Biden’s 2024 budget. The president first introduced a 5.2% raise for federal workers in the budget proposal he put forth in March of this year.

Competing with the Private Sector

As The Hill’s Sarah Fortinsky pointed out, Biden is making this adjustment under a U.S. code that authorizes the president to make a change if he or she deems it appropriate due to “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.” Presidents routinely make such a move at the end of August, Fortinsky wrote, “to avoid the otherwise automatic pay increases for employees.”

While the pay adjustment is scheduled to go into effect in January of the coming year, President Biden must first issue an executive order before the end of 2023. If that all comes to pass, this pay raise for federal employees will represent their largest in more than 40 years. Still, “unions and some Democrats have said it’s not enough to keep up with record-high inflation over the last years that have starved household budgets,” according to Federal Times, which notes that federal employee wages continue to lag behind those of their private sector counterparts.

Others applauded the administration’s plan.

“Compared to the extreme platforms of some presidential candidates to eliminate entire federal agencies and lay off hundreds of thousands of federal workers, it is gratifying to see the White House treat the workforce with respect,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, in a statement.

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) heralded the announcement as “great news.” Earlier this year, Connolly and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) proposed an 8.7% pay raise for federal workers in the latest version of the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act.

“While not quite what Senator Schatz and I called for in our FAIR Act, a 5.2% average pay raise is the highest since the Carter Administration, and will help us recruit and retain the federal workforce of tomorrow.”

Biden is equally hopeful that taking this step will help the government compete with the private sector for top talent.

“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,” Biden wrote in the Aug. 31 letter. “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, keeping pace with prior wage growth in the labor market.”