Kiran Ahuja, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, announced that the Biden administration has lifted to $15 per hour the minimum wage for federal civilian employees in accordance with an executive order President Joe Biden issued in his second day in office.
Ahuja said in an article Federal News Network published Friday the OPM has unveiled new pay schedules and additional guidance for department and agency heads to implement the new wage increase by Jan. 30.
The new pay policy will affect 67,000 federal employees working for the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture and other agencies.
The Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce requires the OPM to develop a plan and provide the Biden administration with recommendations to promote a $15 per hour minimum wage for federal employees.
“For the Biden-Harris administration, this is about more than setting policy — it’s about living our values. Every federal job should be a good job, and every federal employee should have a pathway to the middle class. Increasing pay rates to at least $15 per hour helps us to achieve these goals, and it’s also a good business decision,” Ahuja said.
She added that the $15 minimum wage effort will result in an increase in productivity and high-quality work and enable federal employers to “recruit and retain the best talent for their workforce, but also help reduce supervisory costs and other expenses.”
