IFPTE Requests Congress Provide Federal Employees a 2027 Pay Increaes on Par with Military Personnel
After the Trump Administration issued an “Alternative Pay Plan” in late August that includes a 2027 pay freeze for federal employees, IFPTE sent letters to Congressional Appropriations leadership and to all Members of the House and the Senate to request any year-end appropriations legislation include a pay increase for all federal employees that is equal to the pay increase for military personnel for 2027.
IFPTE’s letter makes clear that “federal employees have been asked to absorb the consequences of political decisions that undervalue federal employees, undermine agencies’ ability to recruit and retain the best and brightest Americans in the federal workforce, and burden the dedicated Americans with pay that is far below the private sector.” The letter also notes that the “Federal Salary Council’s 2024 recommendations to the President’s Pay Agent calculated that federal employees earned 24.72% less than their counterparts in similar private sector jobs.”
While short term government funding that runs to December 11 has been signed into law, Congress has yet to include any federal pay increase for civilian employees in any must pass bill. The House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill for FY2027 was advanced out of committee in April with no mention of a 2027 pay increase for federal employees. The Senate has not considered their FSGG appropriations bill for FY27 yet. However, the House Armed Services Committee did include language in their National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for military personnel to receive a 5% to 7% pay increase for 2027, but failed to include any pay increase for the civilian federal workforce that supports our national defense and military and delivers services the American public. The Senate NDAA bill includes a 3.6% pay increase for military personnel with no increase in pay for the civilian federal workforce.
Under the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA), Congress passed a law that creates a formula for providing federal government employees an annual pay increase that is both comparable to the private sector pay increases and closes the overall gap between federal pay and private sector pay. However, FEPCA also includes a provision to allow the President to issue an “Alternative Pay Plan” before September 1, on the basis that the U.S. is under an economic emergency, which is effectively a loophole to bypass the formula that every president has used every year since FEPCA’s enactment. As a remedy, IFPTE has long sponsored the FAIR Act (Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act), sponsored by Rep. Walkinshaw (D-VA) and Sen. Schatz (D-HI), which proposes an average 4.1% pay increase for federal workers in 2027, based on the FEPCA formula.
If federal employees are to see any pay increase in 2027, the burden is on Congress to act through the appropriations process or pass the FAIR Act.
Read IFPTE’s letter to Appropriations leadership here.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8495