Dems push for 4.3% pay raise for federal employees

By Kevin Bogardus | 01/17/2025 01:46 PM EST

Federal unions are backing legislation that would deliver a higher salary increase for government staffers than they received this year.  

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Capitol Hill, Dec. 17, 2024.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) has introduced legislation that would give a pay bump to federal workers. Francis Chung/POLITICO

House and Senate Democrats are pressing for a 4.3 percent pay raise for the federal workforce as the incoming Trump administration comes to power.

On Thursday, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) introduced the “Federal Adjustment of Income Rates,” or FAIR, Act, H.R. 493. If passed, the bill would give civil servants an average pay raise of 3.3 percent combined with a locality wage bump of 1 percent, equaling 4.3. percent overall, in 2026.

Connolly said in a statement that the federal workforce is “our country’s single greatest asset.”

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“They come to work every day in service to the American people,” said the Northern Virginia lawmaker. “As we prepare for another Trump administration and its impact on our civil servants, it is only right that they be compensated fairly.”

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