Key facts
- US government paid federal employees $9.5 billion in 2025 not to work.
- Paid administrative leave costs rose 435% from 2023 to 2025.
- $6.7 billion of the $9.5 billion was for a deferred resignation program.
- 21.6 million workdays of paid administrative leave were reported in 2025.
- About 70% of paid administrative leave in 2025 was tied to the deferred resignation program.
- The Trump administration reduced the federal US workforce by approximately 355,000 employees since January 2023.
The US government paid federal employees $9.5 billion in 2025 not to work, largely as part of a deferred resignation program aimed at reducing the federal workforce, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The report found that federal agencies' use of paid administrative leave increased by 435% from 2023 to 2025, costing six times more than in 2023. Of the $9.5 billion paid, $6.7 billion was associated with the deferred resignation program, which allows employees to receive full pay without performing job duties.
In 2025, approximately 21.6 million workdays of paid administrative leave were reported, with about 70% tied to the deferred resignation program. Across 76 reviewed agencies, 144,312 employees took paid administrative leave under this program.
Since January 2023, the Trump administration has reduced the federal workforce by about 355,000 employees. Douglas Pasternak of Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project criticized these efforts as "haphazard" and "mismanaged," citing ripple effects such as delays in Social Security checks and longer wait times at Veterans Affairs hospitals.
Patty Murray, vice-chair of the Senate appropriations committee, stated that the administration "set billions upon billions in taxpayer dollars on fire to quite literally pay people not to do jobs they loved," calling it an "expensive way imaginable to make government worse."