Payroll Costs of the Federal Swamp Exploded 24% During Biden Era

There were 5% more federal workers—2.77 million in 2020 to 2.90 million in 2025—when President Joe Biden left the White House, but the costs of paying this vast legion of bureaucrats exploded 24% during the same period, according to a new report by a nonprofit government watchdog.

Much of the skyrocketing payroll costs is due to spiking paychecks going to employees making more than $100,000 annually in salary during the 2020-2024 period, according to Open the Books, the Illinois-based nonprofit that maintains the world’s largest, most current internet database of public spending:

• Federal workers making $100,000+ annually increased 49% from 532,784 to 793,537.
• Those making $200,000+ saw their ranks grow 82%, from 37,631 to 68,445.
• Bureaucrats being paid $300,000+ rose 84%, from 7,692 to 14,143.

Federal worker compensation increased so widely in the government workforce that the average pay exceeded $100,000 in 117 of 127 executive agencies and the White House. In 2024, 31,452 federal employees outearned every one of the country’s 50 state governors. The average salary of all 50 state governors was just under $150,000 in 2024. New York has the highest-paid chief state executive at $250,000.

Most federal workers are paid according to the General Schedule, which includes 15 grades and 10 pay steps within each grade. The lowest-paid federal worker is a GS-1, who at Step 1 was paid $21,986 annually in 2024. By advancing to Step 10, a GS-1 worker would see an increase in pay to $27,502.

At the highest level of the GS schedule, the GS-15, Step 10, which in 2024 received $159,950. Step 1 for the GS-15 was paid $123,401. Most workers in the GS-13 to GS-15 are in supervisory positions. These salary figures do not include the cost of federal employee benefits, which, on average, add an additional 30% to the total compensation for each position.

The next rung up from the General Schedule is the Senior Executive Service, which includes five levels with pay ranging in 2024 from $147,649 to a maximum of $221,900. Members of the Senior Executive Service are typically the highest-ranked career workers.

Other pay classifications in the federal workforce include those covering law enforcement, administrative law judges, and senior-level science and professional positions.

The highest paid federal worker at the end of 2024, according to the Open the Books report, was cardiologist Gary H. Gibbons, who was director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health and earned $519,246 last year, a 28% increase from the $406,095 he received in 2021.

Gibbons was the second-highest paid federal employee that year, trailing only Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who got $417,608. When Fauci retired early in 2023, his salary had jumped to $480,654.

Currently, the president of the United States is paid $400,000 annually, while the vice president gets $235,100. Trump returns each of his paychecks to the U.S. Treasury.

Among the 20 largest federal departments and agencies, the Department of War tops the list, with 189,272 employees making more than $100,000 annually. The average salary for the 761,524 total workforce was $82,516. The Small Business Administration ranks 20th, employing 7,878 employees.

The SBA was notable for being the only federal department or agency in the top 20 to see its payroll costs go down between 2020 to 2024, with a 26% decline in the workforce total, but only a 3% decline in the total cost of that payroll.

Of the other 19 departments and agencies in the top 20, 15 saw significant increases in both their total number of employees and the cost of their payroll. The average workforce jump for the 15 was 10%. On the total payroll cost side, 19 of the top 20 saw an average cost increase of 23%. The Department of Health and Human Services (39%), the Department of Veterans Affairs (38%), and the Department of Energy (37%) had the biggest payroll cost hikes.

Asked about the above figures, U.S. Office of Management and Budget spokesman Rachel Cauley told The Washington Stand that “so far under Trump, the government workforce has shrunk by almost 300,000 positions.” After the federal government was shut down on October 1 due to the inability of Congress to approve a budget for fiscal year 2026, Trump was talking about firing some portion of the approximately 670,000 federal workers classified as “non-essential,” but to date, none of those employees have received notice of being terminated.

Many of the reductions in the federal workforce under Trump are the result of the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly headed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Caucuses were formed in both the Senate and House to support the DOGE effort to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.

And U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kapur told The Washington Stand that “these numbers demonstrate what most people now recognize—the Biden administration did not take seriously their role as stewards of taxpayer dollars. The Trump administration is very clear about its responsibilities to Americans.”

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., a member of the House DOGE Caucus, lauded the Open the Books report.

“President Trump is leading the charge to cut waste, fraud, and abuse through DOGE. I’m proud to serve on the Congressional DOGE Caucus, where I voted to claw back nearly $10 billion in reckless spending—including shutting down the left-wing slush fund at [the U.S. Agency for International Development]. This report proves there’s more swamp to drain, and I’m ready to deliver more DOGE cuts in Congress.”

Originally published by The Washington Stand

The post Payroll Costs of the Federal Swamp Exploded 24% During Biden Era appeared first on The Daily Signal.