Trump finalizes 1% federal pay raise for 2026
President Donald Trump’s executive order marks the final step of the process to make the 2026 federal pay raise official for most civilian employees.
December 18, 2025 3:57 pm
2 min read
Most civilian employees on the General Schedule are set for a 1% pay bump beginning in January, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday afternoon finalizing the 2026 federal pay raise.
The executive order aligns with Trump’s alternative pay plan from August, which also called for a 1% pay raise for the vast majority of federal employees. It’s the smallest annual increase civilian employees have received since 2021, when Trump directed a 1% increase during his last year in his first term in office.
The White House uploaded pay tables detailing the pay rates for various federal employee schedules. Unlike other recent years of pay raises, the president did not include a locality pay adjustment for 2026. For most employees, the federal pay raise will officially take effect during the first full pay period after Jan. 1.
Law enforcement officers may receive bigger federal pay raises next year, although it’s not yet clear exactly which positions will see the larger pay bump. Trump’s order on Thursday directed the Office of Personnel Management to “assess whether to provide” up to a 3.8% raise for “certain federal civilian law enforcement personnel.”
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Military members are also on track to receive a larger base pay raise of 3.8% for 2026. The White House proposed the pay boost for service members earlier this year, and Congress later included it in the annual National Defense Authorization Act. The White House has indicated Trump plans to sign the NDAA into law Thursday evening.
Trump’s sign-off on Thursday’s executive order marks the final step of the process to make the 2026 civilian pay raise official. Presidents have a Dec. 31 deadline to finalize the federal pay raise each year.
In past years, Congress has occasionally legislated a separate federal pay raise proposal. But this year, there was no alternative for the civilian federal pay raise included in any legislation.
Prior to 2021, the last time feds received a raise of 1% or lower was 2015, the final year of what had been a multi-year drought in civilian employee increases. More recently, most General Schedule employees received raises of 2.7% in 2022, 4.6% in 2023, 5.2% in 2024, and 2% in 2025.
This story was updated with additional details on military pay and locality pay.
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