On Jan. 22, 2022, President Biden signed Executive Order 14003, Protecting the Federal Workforce, establishing the $15 per hour minimum pay rate for federal civilian employees.
 
The Office of Personnel Management is working with federal agencies to implement this executive order. Human Resources Management is working with the USDA, National Finance Center, our payroll service provider, to implement this pay increase for approximately 900 current Forest Service employees.

On Jan. 30, 2022, the minimum $15 per hour change will take effect for employees who are paid using the General Schedule pay rate. Even some employees previously making over $15 per hour will receive a pay increase based on the phased application of the new pay scale. The increase in pay will impact only employees at the GS-4 step 7 grade level and below, depending on their pay rate on their current locality pay tables. Employees at the GS-4 step 7 and below grade level will be paid at either their current rate of pay or the rate corresponding with their current grade and step on the new pay scale, whichever is greater.

The Department of Defense is the responsible agency to make updates to the Federal Wage System pay scales, which includes wage grade, wage supervisor and wage leader employees. DOD is still working on the $15 per hour minimum pay rate for employees paid using the federal wage system. Once the changes are made, the pay adjustments will be made retroactively with an effective date of Jan. 30, 2022.

No action is needed by employees or supervisors for this pay rate change.

HRM will send another email agency-wide once the pay adjustments are updated in the NFC system.

Help is available

Open an HR Help case:

• Call: 1-877-372-7248, Press 2
• Email: hrm_contact_center@usda.gov
• Self-Service: ConnectHR, then click HR Help
• For detailed instructions, visit the HR Help How-to Add a Case Guide.