Federal Workforce: Deferred Resignation Program Largely Responsible for Sixfold Increase in Paid Administrative Leave Salary Costs

GAO found federal agencies' use of paid administrative leave jumped 435% from 2023 to 2025, costing an estimated $9.5 billion in salary in 2025 alone, six times the 2023 figure. Most of that, about $6.7 billion, traces to the deferred resignation program, in which OPM let employees stop working immediately in 2025 but kept paying them through September 30.

GAO also found the leave data itself is unreliable, including agencies reporting holidays as administrative leave 144% more often in pay periods containing a public holiday, an error OPM has not retroactively corrected and does not fully disclose. OPM cannot separate the leave costs tied to workforce reduction from ordinary administrative leave, meaning it has no real way to know whether its own stated goal of cutting costs by shrinking the workforce is being met. OPM agreed with GAO's recommendations to disclose the data problems and create a way to track reduction-related leave separately.

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