The largest 2025 raises in the San Francisco (2.35 percent), Seattle (2.29), New York (2.23), Washington, D.C. (2.22) and Los Angeles (2.17) areas. Image: Nature's Charm/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffPresident Biden has signed an executive order finalizing a 2 percent average federal employee pay raise in January, with increases to vary by locality from 1.88 to 2.35 percent.
The 2 percent average reflects the recommendation Biden made in his budget proposal and which Congress allowed to take effect by default by not legislating a figure before adjourning for the year last week. In a routine letter to Congress later, Biden had said that in that case, he would stick to his proposal while splitting it as 1.7 percent to be paid across the board and the funds for the remainder paid in amounts varying by locality.
Locality raises are determined by comparisons of federal salaries with those of similar private sector jobs nationally and by city areas (not by cost of living). Based on Labor Department figures, the Federal Salary Council recently reported an overall gap of 24.72 percent, and that the gaps remain the largest in some areas where the locality pay component already is the highest.
Those figures translated into the largest 2025 raises in the San Francisco (2.35 percent), Seattle (2.29), New York (2.23), Washington, D.C. (2.22) and Los Angeles (2.17) areas. The smallest raise, 1.88 percent, will be in the Cleveland area. It will be 1.91 percent in the catchall “rest of the U.S.” locality for locations not in one of the 55 city zones (outside of Alaska and Hawaii, which are treated as localities in their entirety), which has the largest number of affected employees.
Individuals’ rates are based on where they work, not where they live. The boundaries are here.
In staying with the 2 percent figure, Biden effectively turned down a late bid by several dozen Democratic members of Congress to boost it to 4.5 percent in the name of pay parity with most military personnel, who will receive a January raise of that amount (some junior military members will receive 14.5 percent).
The GS raises are effective with the first full pay period of the new year (see accompanying story for other pay systems), which for most employees will begin January 12. Employees see the impact of the raise with the pay distribution covering that pay period, which they typically receive about a week to 10 days later—meaning the late days of January or the early days February.
2025 GS locality pay tables here.
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How Do Age and Years of Service Impact My Federal Retirement
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