Pay raises frozen for Pence, Cabinet secretaries while the shutdown lasts

Scheduled pay raises for top federal officials including Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Cabinet have been put on hold for the duration of the partial government shutdown.

The Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies to freeze the raises in a memo Friday night, arguing "it would be prudent for agencies to continue to pay these senior political officials at the frozen rate until appropriations legislation is enacted that would clarify the status of the freeze."

The raises would have bumped recipients' pay by $10,000 per year while about 800,000 federal workers are on furlough or working without pay until shutdown negotiations are resolved.

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At the end of December, President Trump issued an executive order canceling a 2.1 percent pay raise for federal civilian workers that was scheduled for January, instead freezing their pay for the duration of 2019. The order also cancels a January "locality pay increase," an annual adjustment of federal salaries tied to local cost of living, but it does not affect a 2.6 percent raise planned for military forces.