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Pay & Benefits
OPM sets up leave transfer program for feds impacted by Milton
Federal workers will soon be able to donate unused leave to their colleagues who need time to recover after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida Wednesday.
Pay & Benefits
Cost-of-living adjustments will decline for federal retirees again in 2025
For the second straight year, former federal workers will see a smaller increase to their defined-benefit annuities in January, with FERS retirees set for a 2% increase and CSRS annuitants a 2.5% bump.
Oversight
OPM’s retirement backlog has fallen off the agency’s list of top management challenges
The Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general last month reported that the federal government’s dedicated HR agency faces taller tasks in the form of launching a health insurance program for postal workers and verifying enrollees’ eligibility for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Pay & Benefits
OPM moves to standardize General Schedule, blue collar locality pay areas
For years, federal employee unions have bemoaned that the pay systems’ differing maps of high-cost regions created pay inequity within agency workforces.
Pay & Benefits
Lawmakers consider making military leave more equitable for feds with non-traditional work schedules
Currently, the annual cap on paid leave available to federal employees associated with their service in the National Guard is 15 days, which advocates say works well for traditional weekday work schedules but not for employees who frequently work weekends.
Pay & Benefits
Labor Department sets 2025 federal contractor minimum wages
In a pair of filings in the Federal Register Monday, Labor Department officials set the range of minimum wages for contractors between $9.30 per hour for tipped workers to $17.75 per hour, depending on the job type.
Pay & Benefits
OPM announces leave transfer program for feds affected by Helene
Federal employees will soon be able to donate unused leave to their colleagues who need time to recover after Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction across the Southeast.
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Pay & Benefits
TSP continues upward trek for third straight month
Each portfolio within the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program saw modest gains in September.
Management
SBA’s inspector general will serve double duty in acting Social Security role
The appointment of Small Business Administration Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware to perform the same job at the Social Security Administration comes after embattled Inspector General Gail Ennis retired last summer.
Workforce
House Dems reintroduce bill to expand VA health care employees’ union rights
The VA Employees Fairness Act would extend full federal collective bargaining rights to Title 38 health care workers at the Veterans Affairs Department, though its chances of passage are slim.
Pay & Benefits
Federal workers will see the largest increase to their health care premiums in recent memory next year
In a year where insurers have expanded coverage for multiple medical treatments, federal employees will see their Federal Employees Health Benefits Program premiums increase by an average of 13.5% in 2025.
Pay & Benefits
Multiple FEHBP carriers will offer 'comprehensive' IVF coverage next year
Biden administration officials said that two nationwide insurers in the federal government’s employer-sponsored health care program will offer $25,000 worth of in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments.
Management
A new Senate bill would make it easier to track appointees’ confirmation status
The Improving Senate Confirmation and Vacancy Oversight Act would create a publicly accessible dashboard to track the status of a president’s nominees to the 1,300 Senate-confirmed appointments across government.
Pay & Benefits
Lawmakers force a vote on eliminating the windfall elimination provision
Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garrett Graves, R-La., have secured the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on legislation that would kill two controversial tax provisions affecting some feds’ retirement benefits.
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Workforce
NTEU becomes latest federal worker union to endorse Harris
Unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO previously swapped out their Biden endorsements for the vice president shortly after he announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign in July.
Pay & Benefits
Senators push to avert pay cliff looming over overseas Foreign Service officers in stopgap spending deal
Foreign Service officers stationed outside the U.S. could see an average pay cut of 22% if the provision undergirding legislation aimed at ensuring commensurate pay between overseas federal workers and their domestically located counterparts is not reauthorized.
Workforce
Congressional committees tackle bills governing telework, marijuana and labor unions
While a Senate panel advanced bills improving telework data reporting by federal agencies and codifying the end of the restriction on federal employees’ past use of marijuana, its House counterpart advanced controversial bills aimed at busting federal employee unions and adding leading questions to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
Workforce
Former executives warn Schedule F poses risk to national security
Even if not maximally pursued initially, experts said the effort to replace nonpartisan workers in policy jobs with political loyalists could make presidential transitions even more precarious.
Management
Trump’s second-term agenda: Breaking the bureaucracy
If elected this fall, Donald Trump's return to Washington would promise a more aggressive—and plausible—campaign to hobble unions, politicize the nonpartisan civil service and remake the federal government in the Republican’s image.
Workforce
O’Malley makes last ditch effort to secure Biden’s budget proposal for Social Security
The commissioner said that without a budget anomaly to boost funding at the agency, the Social Security Administration would need to institute a hiring freeze and would see its workforce fall to a 50-year low.
