Federal pay executive orders

What this topic covers

Federal-pay orders usually adjust or administer pay systems that Congress has created by law. The hub includes annual rate adjustments for federal civilian employees and certain executive positions, locality-pay administration, and separate minimum-wage rules for federal contractors. These categories should not be confused: a General Schedule increase applies through statutory pay tables, while a contractor minimum wage is a contract condition for covered work. An executive order can use authority delegated by Congress, but it cannot independently appropriate the money required to pay salaries or rewrite statutory compensation formulas.

Clinton’s EO 12883 delegated specific federal-pay administration authority to the President’s Pay Agent, helping implement locality pay for eligible employees outside the General Schedule. George W. Bush continued the annual adjustment pattern through orders that set rates under existing pay statutes. The recurring documents can look alike, but each year’s signed order specifies the effective date and which statutory schedules or officials are covered. The site’s linked guides preserve that year-by-year record.

Obama continued annual pay adjustments and added a separate labor standard for federal contractors. EO 13658 established a minimum wage for many workers on federal contracts, with later adjustments under its terms. Trump’s first term issued annual civilian and executive schedule orders and amended the contractor-wage framework to create exceptions for specified recreational services on federal lands. Biden set yearly federal rates and issued EO 14026, which raised the minimum wage for many federal contractors. That contractor rule drew litigation over the President’s authority and the order’s application to particular contracts; it did not change the General Schedule for federal employees.

Trump’s second term has returned to a 1 percent across-the-board federal pay adjustment for 2026. EO 14368 sets rates under the relevant pay authorities and keeps locality-pay percentages at their 2025 levels. The Federal Register publication and 2026 pay tables provide the operative schedule. That is a distinct approach from a general locality increase: an employee’s final pay depends on the statutory schedule and applicable locality table. See the order’s Federal Register text and OPM’s published pay schedules before calculating an individual salary.

Pay litigation often turns on statutes rather than the President’s policy preference. In United States v. Testan, the Supreme Court held that the Classification Act and Back Pay Act did not create the requested money-damages remedy for employees challenging their grade classifications. The decision underscores that federal compensation claims depend on the specific statute and remedy Congress authorized. For contractor wages, courts likewise examine the legal source of authority, the scope of covered contracts, and the order’s interaction with procurement statutes. A court challenge to one contractor rule should not be read as a ruling on annual civilian salary adjustments.

Across administrations, the practical questions are stable even when the amount changes: which pay system applies, who is covered, when the new rate begins, and whether locality or special-rate rules alter the result. Read each year’s signed order with OPM implementation materials and the relevant statutory provisions. For historical status, the Federal Register index and National Archives disposition tables help distinguish a current pay directive from an expired annual schedule.

Landmark orders and turning points

• EO 12883 (1993) delegated pay-administration authority to the President’s Pay Agent, including locality-pay functions.
• EO 13658 (2014) established a minimum wage for many workers on federal contracts, a separate policy from federal employee salary schedules.
• EO 13525 (2009) illustrates the annual adjustment orders that set federal and executive pay rates through statutory authority.
• EO 14026 (2021) raised the minimum wage for many federal contractors and generated litigation over the reach of procurement authority.
• EO 14061 (2021) set federal pay rates for 2022 under the civilian and executive pay systems.
• EO 14368 (2025) set 2026 rates with a 1 percent across-the-board increase while leaving locality percentages at 2025 levels.

Read how EO Explained checks sources and status.