The $9.5 Billion Price of Paid Leave in the 2025 Federal Downsizing
The United States spent $9.5 billion in 2025 to keep federal workers on paid administrative leave while trying to shrink the federal workforce.
That figure comes from a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday. It covers salary costs for the agencies in its review. Federal use of paid leave, which is time off with pay that does not count against vacation, rose 435% from 2023 to 2025. Spending in 2025 was six times what the government spent in 2023. The Guardian
In workdays, the total went from about 4 million in 2023 and 4.4 million in 2024 to about 21.6 million in 2025. GAO based its findings on payroll data from the agencies in its scope, listed as GAO-26-108477. GAO
Most of the increase traces to one program. About 70% of paid leave used in 2025 was tied to the deferred resignation program, in which employees agree to leave at a future date while remaining on paid status. That share accounted for $6.7 billion of the $9.5 billion total. Across 76 agencies reviewed, 144,312 employees reported taking leave under that program. GAO defines the category as “an excused absence without loss of pay or charge to leave.”
The payments were made under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plan to reduce federal staff. NBC News The Office of Management and Budget has said more than 260,000 workers left federal service due to administration initiatives in 2025. Separately, hundreds of federal employees fired in the cost-cutting drive were later asked to return to work, according to September 2025 reporting. AP
DOGE claimed it had saved $105 billion through cuts. In an audit of those savings claims on its federal receipts website, GAO found DOGE had overstated savings. In that audit, GAO said DOGE officials did not respond to requests for information. AP
The broader context here is fiscal and operational, not only budgetary. It is similar to a company spreading severance over many months: salaries are still paid, but no work is received in return. For planners, the key measure is not only how many positions were cut, but how much paid time without work was tied to each departure and how long that status lasted.
Looking at what this means for oversight, the payroll-data method gives auditors a clear baseline for future comparison. The open questions are how the leave was spread across agencies, how missions were affected during long leave periods, and how the $9.5 billion in salaries paid to people who were not working is counted in net savings. Those answers will shape how the 2025 reduction is judged in appropriations and authorization debates.
