OPM to create special salary rate for Trump’s planned law enforcement pay raise
More details from OPM are emerging, after Trump called for a 3.8% pay raise for feds in law enforcement jobs — and a 1% raise for other civilian feds in 2026.
September 3, 2025 5:12 pm
3 min read
The Office of Personnel Management is taking a closer look at the details for implementing President Donald Trump’s proposal for a larger pay raise for federal law enforcement personnel next year.
The announcement from OPM comes a couple days after Trump called for a 3.8% pay raise in 2026 for federal employees working in law enforcement jobs.
“Certain frontline law enforcement personnel are critical to implementing the President’s strategy to secure the border, protect our country and keep American citizens safe,” OPM said this week in new guidance. “Without special salary rates, the government may find it difficult to recruit and/or retain the number of these personnel needed to properly enforce our borders, uphold our immigration laws and protect law-abiding citizens.”
It’s not yet clear which specific positions or how many law enforcement officials will be included in the new special salary rate. OPM said it plans to consult with the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Interior to define which jobs will be eligible for the larger law enforcement pay raise next year.
Generally, though, OPM said the upcoming special salary rate will cover agents in the Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration, criminal investigators at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Secret Service personnel, officers at the Federal Protective Service and the FBI, and correctional officers at the Federal Bureau of Prisons — among several other groups.
“OPM will work with agencies to identify the final categories of law enforcement personnel that will be eligible for the special rates,” the agency said.
For 2026, Trump’s larger proposed salary boost for law enforcement officials aligns with the planned 3.8% pay raise for military members.
In contrast, Trump teed up most other civilian federal employees on the General Schedule for a 1% across-the-board pay raise in 2026 — with no locality pay adjustment attached.
The pay tables containing further details of the special salary rate for federal law enforcement personnel will be available at the same time that the broader GS pay tables will be published for 2026. OPM usually publishes pay tables for the following calendar year sometime in December.
Typically, OPM establishes special salary rates for specific groups of employees or specific geographic regions when the agency deems that there are “significant” problems with recruitment or retention.
OPM has carved out special salary rates for some other groups of federal employees over the last few years, in an attempt to improve recruitment and retention of hard-to-fill roles. During the Biden administration, for instance, OPM created a governmentwide special salary rate for federal IT workers — although the implementation of that SSR was spotty.
In 2023, the Department of Veterans Affairs also launched a special salary rate for its HR employees. The Trump administration, however, eliminated that pay bump for HR staff at the VA earlier this year.
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The Trump administration has taken other steps attempting to boost recruitment and retention of federal law enforcement this year. For example, federal agencies hiring for national security-related positions are exempt from the governmentwide hiring freeze. For most other agencies, the initially 90-day hiring freeze has been extended twice and is currently set to expire Oct. 15.
The Trump administration has sought to hire more ICE agents by removing age restrictions for ICE recruits, who can now be as young as 18 years old. DHS is also offering potential signing bonuses of up to $50,000 in an attempt to entice more applicants to ICE.
And for its more long-term recruitment efforts, DHS received an additional $165 billion from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to take on a massive law enforcement hiring surge over the next several years.
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