The United States Office of Personnel Management manages the pay scale of General Schedule employees along with health insurance, and retirement benefits and coordinates the recruitment of new employees.
With the next year approaching, the General Schedule and federal employees must be wondering about the pay scale in 2025. This year, the White House Budget proposed a pay rise for the GS employees, let’s see what the employees can expect from 2025.
OPM Pay Scale 2025
The White House budget proposed a rise in the pay scale of GS employees to 2%, this means the hike rate would resonate in the pay scale of GS employees from January 2025. The Biden administration had proposed a 12% average pay raise for 14,500 blue-collar workers in October 2024.
In August 2024, the White House also presented an alternate plan for the pay scale for civilian federal employees where the proposal was to raise the federal pay by 1.7% and locality pay by 0.3%, which resulted in a 2% raise.
The US Office of Personnel Management announces the federal pay scale structure for the federal GS employees working for the government. The OPM generally announces the pay table in December for the next year, so employees waiting for the paytable for 2025 can expect the pay table and pay scale update in December 2024.
What’s the lawmaker’s say on the 2025 OPM Pay scale?
The lawmakers and democrats have demanded the White House for a larger pay rise in 2025 to reduce the financial burden on the employees. According to the latest information, the Senate and Democrats sent the proposal to the White House a week ago.
The lawmakers demand the White House revise the pay rise for civilian federal and military employees. The White House alternative plan proposes a 2% pay hike for GS employees, whereas the Military personnel can expect a raise of 4.5% in 2025.
Congressman Gerry Connolly and others have urged the White House to match the pay raise of military personnel with civilian federal employees’ pay raise. So, the lawmakers’ stand is clear: they demand a 4% pay rise saying the civilians and service members both work tirelessly for the nation’s growth and security, so the payment should align together.
How does the OPM calculate the pay scale?
According to the OPM rules, the office calculates the pay scale rate based on the following factors:
- Employees annual rate of basic pay
- Special rate supplement (if any)
- Locality payment is an increase that keeps the wages in sync with private employees’ wages based on the geographical area.
The office calculates the pay rates and rounds them to the nearest cent, for instance, if the office considers, hourly rate, biweekly rate, night pay, Sunday premium pay, overtime pay, and holiday premium pay when they calculate the pay scale.
How does the federal Wage system rise to differ from GS employees?
The General Schedule (GS) pay structure is designed for white-collar civilian federal employees, while the FWS pay structure primarily addresses most blue-collar workers, including those in trade, craft, and labor roles within the Executive Branch. However, if the pay scale increases, it would happen to both.
Previously, legislation has placed white-collar and blue-collar employees in different personnel systems. The FWS and GS pay systems are distinct due to being governed by different laws and regulations. This regulation aims to revise the criteria determining the geographic boundaries of the wage areas utilized by the FWS about certain existing GS wage areas.
As we mentioned, the Biden administration has mentioned the 12% raise for 14,500 blue-collar workers, it will not include GS employees.
Impact of OPM Pay Scale Rise in 2025
The OPM administers the increase for the federal wage system and the General Schedule system to decide the pay scale for people working for the government. With the OPM pay scale revision to be announced in December 2024 for 2025 can impact the system in the following way:
- With the COLA increase of 2.5% for 2025, the employees can expect a raise in their pay scale.
- As the pay scale depends on the geographical area and demographics, people living in San Francisco or New York high-end States can expect a higher hike in pay scale compared to other regions.
- The 2% increase in the pay scale is one of the lowest hikes in the years, it would not change much for the employees, hence the lawmakers demand a higher pay rise in the coming year. The employees have got 3.6% this year and a 4% raise in 2023, so a 2% hike is still concerning for many employees.
The 2025 pay scale for blue-collar workers (FWS) and General Schedule employees will be announced soon in December 2024, the most likely hike we can expect is 2%.