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Hello everyone. I'm Ian Smith here with
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fedsmith.com. Here to talk to you today
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about the special pay raise that's being
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given in 2026 to certain federal
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employees in law enforcement. This was
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done by the executive order that was
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issued back in December finalizing the
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2026 pay raise. And I was just going to
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provide a highlevel overview of the
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raise today. There are quite a few
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details that go with it such as who is
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actually covered by it like which which
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categories of federal employees it
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applies to and I won't get into tons and
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tons of detail about it but I am going
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to go through a lot of the key parts of
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it and I have linked to an article in
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the description that I wrote that has
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all of these details. So,
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um, I will provide that as I said in the
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description and that way you can get all
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of the information you need about it.
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So, let's get started.
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So, as I mentioned, the 2026 federal
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federal pay raise was finalized in
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December uh, when President Trump issued
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the executive order setting the pay
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And President Trump issued his
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alternative pay plan back in August and
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that provided a 1% acrosstheboard pay
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raise for most federal employees.
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But it also had a special provision in
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it that the pay raise doesn't normally
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have. And that was an additional pay
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raise for federal employees who work in
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certain law enforcement positions. And
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it was done in order to match the 3.8%
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8% raise that's being given to members
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of the military in 2026.
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And the way the president instructed it
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to be done is he ordered um or he
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directed the office of personnel
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management to implement the raise and
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that agency has now done so by creating
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special rate tables for the covered law
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enforcement positions. So, OPM has
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published these special rate tables
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covering um all steps in each of grades
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GS1 through 15 for covered positions. It
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includes a 1% across the board raise
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that the president offer authorized plus
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an additional 2.8% raise. So, that's how
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you get to the 3.8% total. That's how it
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was structured. Now, this pay raise is
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subject to the level four executive
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schedule pay cap, which is $197,000,
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That may prevent some employees from
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getting the full 3.8% raise, but most
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employees should get it. According to
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OPM, the the this special pay raise is
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considered basic pay for most purposes.
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So things like retirement, life
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insurance, overtime pay, computation,
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severance pay, and lump sum annual leave
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they're covered by it. However, covered
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employees are not entitled to locality
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pay on top of the special rate. They
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will receive the greater of the locality
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rate of pay or special rate for their
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And also it's important to note the
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normal general schedule within grade
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increase quality step increase and st
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two-step promotion rules will continue
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to apply to employees covered by these
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And the pay raise will be effective on
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So, who gets it? Well, as I said, I'm
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not going to go in and read through
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every single category of law enforcement
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positions covered by this raise. There's
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too many to sit here and just read, but
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OPM has identified several categories of
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And um it covers a number of general
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schedule positions within the
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departments of agriculture, homeland
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security, interior, justice, and state,
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as well as positions under alternative
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pay systems. And again, I've I've got a
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link to an article in the description
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that will list all those out. So that's
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a basic overview of the raise. I hope
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you found this information to be
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helpful. If so, please like and
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subscribe to receive updates from our
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channel on similar topics. And be sure
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also to share the video with others that
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you may think find it useful. Thank you
