The federal government estimated to have spent $9.5 billion last year to pay employees to remain inactive. This cost is mainly due to an initiative called "Efficient Government Sector" (DOGE) aimed at reducing the federal workforce. According to a new report, the use of paid administrative leave has increased by 435 percent from 2023 to 2025.
Details of Costs and Related Programs
A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published on Tuesday shows that costs associated with employee salaries have increased sixfold during this period. The agency estimates that of the total $9.5 billion cost, about $6.7 billion, equivalent to 70 percent of total costs for 2025, is related to the deferred resignation program. This analysis is based on payroll data from 76 agencies that comprise nearly 95 percent of the federal civilian workforce.
Resignation and Workforce Reduction Program
In January 2025, the Trump administration offered about 2 million federal employees the option to resign while still receiving their full pay and benefits until September 30. This offer was designed to encourage voluntary departures under the deferred resignation title. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) instructed agencies to place employees who accepted this offer on paid administrative leave until their departure. Some agencies later implemented additional deferred resignation programs.
According to federal workforce data, 139,963 federal employees exited the government through deferred resignation programs. This initiative was part of the Trump administration's broader efforts under DOGE to reduce what it viewed as wasteful federal spending. Elon Musk, who was known as the public face of DOGE, initially promised to save the federal government $2 trillion but later reduced this goal to $1 trillion.
The DOGE website ultimately claimed to have achieved an estimated $215 billion in savings, but this figure has not been independently verified. In a separate review of the claimed $110 billion in savings, the GAO concluded that some estimates were inaccurate or unsupported.
Federal data indicates a net reduction of 271,363 federal civilian employees, nearly 12 percent of the federal workforce, between the time Trump entered the White House and July of this year. However, these reductions have not been uniform across agencies. Between December 2024 and January 2026, most reductions occurred at USAID, where the workforce decreased by 95 percent.
Some agencies later had to replace employees who were being paid. The Partnership for Public Service identified 20,557 hires in the same types of roles by June 2026. Scott Cooper, OPM Director, defended the program's economy in a letter to the GAO, stating that he expects workforce reductions to save $20 billion annually.
The Trump administration also undertook other efforts to reduce the federal workforce. On his first day in office, Trump announced a federal hiring freeze and instructed agencies to hire no more than one person for every four departures.
The administration has faced widespread lawsuits regarding workforce reductions. In September 2025, a federal judge ruled that OPM had overstepped its authority, although the judge did not order the reinstatement of employees. Aside from this, the Supreme Court in July 2025 halted a lower court's temporary order, allowing agencies to continue workforce reductions despite ongoing lawsuits.
