Biden reveals a RAISE for federal workers: White House gives government staff a pay bump of 5.2% – as pressure grows on more to return to the office

President Joe Biden will give federal workers a 5.2% federal pay raise next year, the White House said Thursday.

Biden wrote a letter to House and Senate leaders to officially initiate the increase. The federal government’s new fiscal year begins on October 1.

It’s the biggest increase in base pay for federal workers in nearly four decades. The wage increase across the board will be 4.7 percent and local wage increases will average another 0.5 percent from January 1.

By comparison, private sector employee salaries increased by an average of 4.6 percent in 2023.

“We must attract, recruit and retain a skilled, fair-paid workforce to run our government, deliver services and meet the challenges facing our country today and tomorrow,” Biden said in a statement.

The president introduced his plan for a 5.2% wage increase in March in his budget proposal.

Congress could still block it through the budget process.

Biden has pushed federal employees back to the office, following the work-from-home policies put in place during COVID.

Private companies, along with the federal government, are encouraging employees to return to the office, either full-time or on a hybrid schedule.

And he says millions of workers earning less than $55,000 a year are entitled to overtime.

The rule ensures that employees are paid an hour and a half for every hour they work during a 40-hour work week. About 3.6 million people will benefit from the change led by the US Department of Labor.

Currently, only employees earning less than $35,568 are automatically charged overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week, under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Congress could still block the pay raise — above staff at FEMA

But employees who are salaried, exceed the threshold requirement and work in a “bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity” are not covered by this law — as long as they meet all three requirements.

It means workers in low-paid, but salaried, occupations such as hospitality, manufacturing, and retail will stand to gain the most.

And another major change that is being proposed is that the overtime pay threshold will be automatically updated every three years. The updates will be based on average wage data.