US Government Employees To Get Standard $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage

Government employees in the United States will have a minimum wage of $15 per hour. This was after US federal agencies were ordered to implement the new minimum wage hike according to a new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Hence, roughly 70,000 federal employees will be impacted by this directive. Most of those affected by it are from the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Veteran Affairs, Reuters reported.

“This executive order will promote economy and efficiency in federal contracting, providing value for taxpayers by enhancing worker productivity and generating higher-quality work by boosting workers’ health, morale and effort,” the White House said in a statement via The Guardian.

The wage implementation was part of Joe Biden’s campaign, vowing to support blue-collar workers. The current US president believes that strong unions and higher wages could resurrect America's middle class while helping bridge economic and racial inequities.

It was also last year when Biden issued an executive order raising wages of federal contract workers to $15 an hour.

"Raising pay rates across the federal government to a minimum of $15 per hour reflects our appreciation for the federal workforce and our values as a nation," Kiran Ahuja, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in an official statement.

Before the month ends, government employees should enjoy the new $15 per hour wage rate. The new wage should be implemented by Jan. 30. Also, it would be best to note that excluded from this is the U.S. Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission.

The $15 per hour wage should also be welcome to workers who earn the current minimum of $10.95 an hour.

This means that a 37% pay hike is coming although the said increase will reportedly be implemented gradually.

There are an estimated 5 million contract workers in the federal government, according to a posting last year for the Brookings Institution by Paul Light, a public policy professor at New York University.