OPM Pay Scale 2023

As of September 2, 2022, the White House announced that the average pay raise for federal employees maybe 4.6% in 2023. If this is implemented, it will affect more than 30,000 federal employees. It is worth noting that this is the GS pay scale but not the OPM pay scale.

OPM stands for the Office of Personnel Management and provides policy leadership and expertise for federal employees. These include the Federal Wage System, Law Enforcement Officer Pay Schedules, and the General Schedule. We still need a few months for the 2023 OPM pay scale.

Considering the average inflation levels in 2022 and the record increase in cost-of-living adjustment, experts are expecting a record increase in the 2023 OPM pay scale. On the other hand, the White House and Congress will be doing their best to keep the costs at a minimum since they have already met the inflation bonus from their budget.

So far, as we noted at the beginning of this article, the White House sent a letter to Congress recommending a 4.6% average pay raise on the GS pay scale in 2023. It is worth noting that the proposed raise also aligns with the budget recommendation of the White House in March.

Another important detail you need to know is that the proposed pay raise includes a 0.5% locality pay raise. If it is accepted, the changes will take effect starting from the first day of January 1, 2023.

President Joe Biden once again had to use his mandated authority as a part of the national emergency, or serious economic conditions, declared in the United States. He used his mandated authority for the payment adjustments for civilian federal employees.

He noted that the across-the-board base pay increase is determined as 4.1%, and the locality pay increase is determined as 0.5%. In total, the average increase for civilian federal employees will be 4.6%. We believe that this alternative pay plan will retain and attract a well-qualified workforce in federal jobs, and they will not lose many other workers to the private sector.

The president also noted that this new increase will close the pay gap between the private sector and federal jobs. However, experts do not share the same opinions as the president. They believe that the gap between private sector and federal jobs is increasing every year, and this new increase will lead to more resignations.

It is worth noting that the GS pay raise is not official yet. It will be finalized in the next few months. Considering the continuous rapid growth of inflation, some experts believe that the increase should be considerably higher than the proposal.

You can visit the official OPM page to check the recent status of pay raises, which you can access through the 2022 pay raise as the most recent announcement. In general, OPM pay raises will be announced towards the end of the year, and thus, we still have a few months to wait for them.

On the other hand, if the government does not increase this proposed GS pay raise, it is believed that around 3-4% of federal employees will resign and apply for jobs in the private sector. This can significantly affect the overall performance of federal employees, especially when we consider the loss rates in the past few years.