The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced that federal civilian employees across the nation will be paid a wage of at least $15 per hour.
Of the 67,000 federal employees who are currently paid below $15 per hour, the majority is collectively employed by the departments of agriculture, defense and veterans affairs.
“Whether they are on the front lines of our food industry, in the fight against climate change, protecting farms from invasive species or our communities from devastating wildfires, each of USDA’s employees deserve to be fairly compensated for their talents and for all the important work they do for our country,” says Tom Vilsack, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary. “As we work to build a better America and make USDA a great place to work, it is important that our employees understand that we value their hard work to support our farmers, ranchers and producers, to fight food and nutrition insecurity, to combat climate change, and to deliver results for the American people. Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s leadership in advancing pay equity, about 2,000 USDA employees will see their pay increased.”
OPM released a memorandum for executive department and agency heads that provides guidance for this pay rate adjustment.
The minimum pay raise came about when President Joe Biden signed an executive order on protecting the federal workforce during his first week in office. This led to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja to providing a report to Biden with recommendations to promote a $15 minimum hourly wage for federal employees.
“As the largest employer in the country, how the federal government treats its workforce has real impact,” says Ahuja. “The Biden-Harris Administration believes that the federal workforce should be treated with dignity and respect. Raising pay rates across the federal government to a minimum of $15 per hour reflects our appreciation for the federal workforce and our values as a nation. We know that paying a living wage provides a myriad of benefits, from recruitment to retention to increased productivity, and more. It’s also the right thing to do. We should strive for every federal job to be a good job, and we want to ensure that every federal employee has a pathway to the middle class. Increasing pay rates to at least $15 per hour will keep the federal government competitive in the marketplace and is another way that we can serve as a model employer, setting a high bar for other sectors to follow.”
