In the News

In his alternative pay plan last week, President Donald Trump said a nearly governmentwide federal pay freeze next year would “maintain fiscal responsibility without harming the government’s ability to recruit and retain well qualified employees.”

But some federal employee organizations and unions beg to differ — many warn that the Trump administration’s plans for a federal pay freeze in 2027 will worsen recruitment, retention and overall workforce morale.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley called the pay freeze for most civilian federal employees a “slap in the face.”

“Federal employees treat our veterans and support our military, safeguard our food and air, process retirement and disability payments for tens of millions of Americans every month and so much more,” Kelley said. “Making sure they earn a fair wage isn’t just good for them — it’s good for the quality of government services and the people we all serve.”

The comments follow Trump’s alternative pay plan, which was transmitted to Congress last week. The document came in just ahead of a Sept. 1 deadline to avoid defaulting to a much larger federal pay raise under the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).

“We must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course,” Trump wrote. “Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such irresponsible increases.”

Despite a pay freeze for most civilian federal employees in 2027, Trump’s alternative pay plan made exceptions to offer larger pay raises to federal law enforcement officials and military members, ranging from 3.6% to 7%.

The targeted pay raises are intended to increase recruitment and retention of law enforcement personnel, as well as rebuild military readiness and capabilities, Trump’s alternative pay plan stated. The Office of Management and Budget did not respond to Federal News Network’s request for comment on Monday seeking details on the decision to offer pay increases to specific groups of employees.

While expressing support for the planned raises for military members and federal law enforcement officials, the Federal Managers Association still urged pay parity for all federal employees.

“They deserve to be recognized and compensated fairly, and we are demoralized by the president’s proposed pay freeze,” FMA National President Linda Lentjes said.

“The American public deserves a federal workforce that receives the resources it needs to provide the services our citizens count on,” Lentjes continued. “A pay freeze will only deflate federal employees’ morale, erode employee retention and recruitment, and lead to a lower quality of services from the federal government.”

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) argued that — especially considering the major federal workforce reductions throughout 2025 — a pay freeze would further hamper recruitment and retention.

“This ‘more work for less pay’ policy will only drive the most valuable employees out of federal service, costing Americans in degraded services,” NARFE National President William Shackelford said. “Without a meaningful increase, more high-performing, undervalued employees will likely leave public service, and it will be more difficult or more expensive to hire and train replacements. Without adequate staffing, federal government operations and services on behalf of the American people will suffer.”

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), a union representing 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, raised concerns about particular challenges that a pay freeze would pose to modernization efforts of the U.S. air traffic control system.

“As workers fall behind in compensation, fewer will accept positions with the FAA, and experienced employees will have less of an incentive to remain at the agency. This will likely slow down the progress of implementation,” PASS National President Dave Spero said. “Aviation safety inspectors and other critical employees will begin to retire and the recruitment of these aviation safety professionals will suffer.”

Trump’s alternative pay plan means a pay freeze is now the most likely option employees will see next year. But the raise amounts won’t be finalized until the president signs an executive order, something that usually occurs each December.

In the coming months, it’s still possible for Congress to intervene and put forward its own federal pay raise plans for 2027. So far, however, there has been no indication from lawmakers’ spending legislation that would deviate from the White House’s plans.

At the same time, a Democrat-led bill called the FAIR Act may offer a different path toward a pay raise next year. If enacted, the bill from Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) would provide a 4.1% federal pay raise in 2027.

“Freezing federal employee pay in 2027 would be the latest in a long line of attacks on the federal workforce by the Trump administration,” Walkinshaw said Monday in a statement to Federal News Network. “Federal workers have already absorbed firings, DOGE chaos and repeated efforts to strip away their civil service protections. Now, with prices rising at 3.4% over the past 12 months, a 0% raise asks them to absorb a pay cut too. That is why I am going to keep fighting for the FAIR Act to give federal employees the 4.1% pay increase they deserve.”

Lawmakers have introduced the FAIR Act annually in recent years, attempting to give federal employees higher raises in line with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index (ECI). But in the last decade that it’s been continually introduced, the legislation has never advanced.

In the wake of last week’s pay freeze announcement, many federal unions and organizations intensified their calls for the passage of the FAIR Act — or another measure that could still lead to a federal pay raise next year.

“There’s still time for Congress to override the president’s plan. So far neither chamber has done so,” Shackelford said. “I urge Congress to authorize a meaningful pay increase via the appropriations process, prior to the end of the year, and in line with recent private sector pay increases and the expected increase to military pay rates.”