Federal civilian employees start 2027 on the same pay tables they have now unless Congress writes a different figure, while the same letter directs a 3.8 percent increase for law enforcement. President Trump’s alternative pay plan, a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson dated August 26, 2026, says “base pay and locality pay for civilian Federal employees will not change from the 2026 rates.” The letter is printed as House Document 119-189.

A zero that takes effect without a vote

Presidents must submit an alternative pay plan to Congress by September 1 each year, and Federal News Network explained that the plan keeps larger formulaic raises from taking effect the following year. The letter says the plan will “maintain fiscal responsibility without harming the government’s ability to recruit and retain,” according to Federal News Network’s account. It cites two sections of the law, 5 U.S.C. 5303(b) and 5304a, which let a president use an alternative plan when “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare” make the scheduled increases inappropriate.

The letter also says what the raise would have been without the plan. Locality pay for the civilian workforce would rise by an average of 20.6 percent at a first-year cost of $26 billion, and the base General Schedule would get an additional 3.1 percent across the board, it says. Neither happens under the freeze.

For a federal worker who is not in a law enforcement job, what does a pay freeze mean for the household? The January paycheck starts from the same salary as December, so any rise in rent, groceries, insurance or retirement contributions has to be absorbed from a flat paycheck. The letter puts a number on the raise that is being skipped: a 3.1 percent across-the-board increase to base pay, plus locality pay, which it says would have averaged 20.6 percent.

The number that matters is zero, and the final 2027 pay figures are usually fixed by executive order in December.

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The 3.8 percent for law enforcement

The same letter says “at my direction the Office of Personnel Management shall use its statutory authority” to increase 2027 compensation for law enforcement personnel by 3.8 percent. That is a separate track from the pay plan. Federal News Network reported that OPM will decide which positions qualify, and that the 3.8 percent matches the law enforcement raise for 2026. For 2026, civilian employees outside law enforcement received 1 percent.

FEDweek reported that the 2027 White House budget “assumes that the administration will ensure a pay increase for certain categories of law enforcement personnel” but did not say how, the amount, or which categories, and that the January 2026 raise for that group came through special rate authority. Last year, FEDweek noted, the House committee also effectively backed a freeze, and the president instead recommended 1 percent for the general workforce plus the extra law enforcement increase, which brought that group to 3.8 percent.

The letter treats the military differently again: 7.0 percent for grades E1 to E5, 6.0 percent for E6 to O3 and 5.0 percent for O4 and above, plus 3.6 percent for uniformed services outside the armed forces.

What Congress has and has not done

Congress can still change the outcome, but lawmakers had not signaled an alternative when the letter arrived, Federal News Network reported. Democrats introduced the FAIR Act earlier in 2026 to push for a 4.1 percent raise, and no version of it has passed. Back in April, FEDweek reported that the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2027 general government bill that makes no mention of a January raise, and that its Republican majority rejected a Democratic amendment for a 3.1 percent increase. If no figure is set in a spending bill, the White House recommendation takes effect by default. The full House, the Senate and a compromise between them all come before any change.

Budgeting January on 2026 pay

OPM publishes the current schedules on its salaries and wages page, where the 2026 tables for the General Schedule and for law enforcement are posted. A worker’s own grade, step and locality on that table is the starting point for a 2027 budget: if nothing changes, that is the number January’s pay is built on.

The tables are only part of the picture. A paycheck stub shows deductions that can move on their own, such as health premiums and retirement contributions set as a percentage of pay. Pull the last stub and mark every line that is a flat dollar amount, since those do not shrink when pay stays put, and every line that moves with pay.

Final numbers arrive later. Federal News Network reported that the raise amounts are set when the president signs an executive order, which usually happens in December. A worker who plans on the August 26 letter’s figures and is surprised in December by a different one is the case to avoid, so hold the budget loosely until that order is out.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.