154,000 Workers Put on Leave

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A government watchdog says federal agencies spent about $9.5 billion paying employees to stay home in 2025, much of it tied to a downsizing program that promised savings.

Story Highlights

Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated $9.5 billion in 2025 salary costs for paid administrative leave.
About $6.7 billion linked to the deferred resignation program used during workforce cuts.
Roughly 154,000 employees, nearly 7% of the civilian workforce, were reportedly placed on leave.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said paid leave was legal and aimed at faster restructuring.

What GAO Found About Paid Leave Costs

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that federal agencies spent about $9.5 billion on salary costs for paid administrative leave in 2025, a sharp rise from 2023 levels. GAO’s review tied the increase to a surge in leave use during the workforce downsizing effort led by the Department of Government Efficiency. GAO’s overview cited payroll and time-and-attendance data in forming the estimate. The reported figure captured salary costs for employees not working while on paid administrative leave during the year.

Media reports based on GAO’s analysis said about $6.7 billion of the total was associated with a deferred resignation program used across agencies. That program allowed employees to set a future resignation date and be placed on paid administrative leave in the meantime. The spike in leave use represented a multi-fold jump over 2023, and was presented as a cost increase, not a savings, within the broader downsizing push.

How the Deferred Resignation Program Worked

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued guidance in January 2025 directing agencies to place employees who accepted deferred resignation on paid administrative leave until their end date, unless the employee was needed to transition duties. OPM later released a legal memo stating that placing such employees on administrative leave was permitted during the program. OPM also published a template policy for agencies to use administrative leave in governmentwide or agency-specific deferred resignation efforts.

OPM characterized the program as in the interest of agencies and the government because it helped realign the workforce toward a leaner and more efficient structure. A spokesperson later argued the approach was lawful, provided a dignified exit to over 150,000 civil servants, and delivered relief to taxpayers over time. The Department of Health and Human Services told its staff that those who accepted deferred resignation were expected to be placed on administrative or other leave by a set date.

How Many Workers and Why It Matters

One report cited a figure of more than 154,000 federal employees placed on paid leave in 2025, nearly 7 percent of the civilian workforce. That scale changed the public view of administrative leave, which past GAO work found was usually a very small share of federal work time. In 2025, however, leave became a tool for large, rapid reshaping of agencies. That created a visible, near-term cost that both critics and supporters now use to judge the downsizing strategy.

NEW: Federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 BILLION on paid administrative leave in 2025 as Trump’s DOGE workforce cuts sent costs soaring 435%.

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) September 15, 2026

Supporters say the cost was a bridge to permanent savings from fewer positions. Critics see the spike as proof that the process was rushed and wasteful. GAO’s highlighted estimate focuses on salary costs for leave and does not, in the available summaries, break out agency-level results or all drivers of the remaining amount above the deferred resignation share. That gap leaves open questions about what portion of the total came from other actions or categories.

What’s Still Unclear and What to Watch

Reports do not include the full GAO data tables or agency-by-agency breakdowns, making it hard to separate all causes inside the $9.5 billion figure. The link between the deferred resignation program and the full total, while large, is not complete based on public summaries. Future oversight could seek month-by-month counts of employees on leave, details on how positions were abolished or frozen, and whether agencies later hired contractors to backfill the lost work.

Why This Resonates With Left and Right

Taxpayers across the spectrum see billions paid for no work and conclude the system serves leaders, not the public. Conservatives view the figure as proof that the state wastes money even when it promises to cut. Liberals see harm to services and workers, with costs that undercut claims of efficiency. Both sides worry that top officials make sweeping moves without transparent accounting. Clear, complete data from GAO and OPM would help judge if near-term costs bought real long-term value.