President Donald Trump is taking action to ensure most federal workers don’t see a pay raise next year, dismissing concerns about the impact on agency retention and productivity, despite warnings to the contrary.
Trumps Budget proposal 2027 did not mention pay increases for civilian federal employees, which include air traffic controllers, IRS tax auditors and food safety inspectors. In one letter Trump confirmed to House Speaker Mike Johnson last week that there would be no raises for these employees next year. Meanwhile, service members would get a 5% to 7% pay raise, part of an effort to “rebuild the readiness and capabilities of our military.”
The president noted that a wage freeze for most workers was due to increased inflation during the Biden administration. Since Trump took office in January 2025, inflation has risen from 3% to 3.4%.
“Such a large pay increase for federal workers while most Americans are still struggling with the consequences of the Biden administration’s gigantic wave of inflation is unacceptable and would be unfair,” Trump wrote.
Trump insisted the move would not impact the workforce, arguing: “This decision will preserve fiscal responsibility without impacting the government’s ability to recruit and retain well-qualified employees.”
The Office of Management and Budget did not respond AssetsRequest for comment and investigation into why some government employees would receive a raise and others would not.
Retention of the federal workforce has been a problem for years, as the policy think tank RAND noted in a 2014 report analysis These permanent pay freezes between 2011 and 2013 resulted in a 7.3% decline in retention among Defense Department civilian employees with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
For many agencies, employee retention has become more urgent following DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency)-led downsizing, which has been associated with increased burnout and lower work engagement among employees still employed. Not to mention that 271,566 employees have left the federal government since the start of the Trump administration, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
The Non-Profit Public Service Partnership, noted in a report last month that the Deferred Retirement Program (DRP) DOGE’s layoff, which offered employers the opportunity to quit in exchange for a period of full pay and benefits, may have already had a negative impact on the workforce. According to the report, DRP was responsible for about 40% of departures from the U.S. government last year and often resulted in a position being filled by a younger employee with less expertise and less institutional knowledge.
“While it is impossible to fully quantify this loss of institutional knowledge and capacity, one thing is clear,” the report said. The DRP has made it more difficult for agencies across government to serve the public.”
Federal officials and lawmakers are sounding the alarm
Unions representing federal workers warned that the wage freeze will actually lead to greater labor turnover and ultimately cost the U.S. government more money as it has to rehire and retrain for specific roles.
“This ‘more work for less pay’ policy will only drive the most valuable employees out of federal service and cost Americans inferior services,” NARFE National President William Shackelford said in a statement opinion. “Without meaningful staffing increases, more high-performing, undervalued employees are likely to leave the public service, and it will become more difficult or expensive to hire and train replacements. Without adequate staffing, the federal government’s operations and services on behalf of the American people will suffer.”
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), which represents 11,000 Federal Aviation Administration employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), expressed concerns that a pay freeze would lead to slowed recruiting efforts, which would impact the organization’s ability to modernize its air traffic control systems.
The FAA has been struggling with one for decades Lack of air traffic controllers and the agency has outdated systems Buy spare parts on eBay to repair old devices. Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation launched a recruitment campaign is aimed at Generation Z gamers and has hired 2,000 air traffic controllers since launch.
“As workers fall behind on compensation, fewer will accept jobs at the FAA and experienced employees will have less incentive to stay with the agency. This will likely slow implementation progress,” Dave Spero, national president of PASS, said in a statement opinion. “Aviation safety inspectors and other key personnel will retire and recruitment of these aviation safety professionals will suffer.”
There’s a chance these fears won’t materialize, as Congress may replace the proposal with its own budget bill. In 2019, a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted down Trump’s proposal to freeze federal workers’ pay 1.9% salary increase retroactive to the beginning of the year, which Trump signed. Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia and Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii introduced it FAIR law That would mean a 4.1% federal pay raise next year.