Deferred resignations generated an estimated $6.7 billion in paid administrative leave.
GAO says workforce-reduction leave drove most of a sixfold jump in federal administrative-leave salary costs during 2025, while OPM could not isolate the program's actual cost in its reporting system.
What happened
GAO estimated that federal agencies spent $9.5 billion in salary costs for paid administrative leave in 2025, a sixfold increase from 2023. About $6.7 billion of the 2025 estimate was associated with the deferred resignation program.
Under that program, employees who agreed to resign or retire generally stopped working immediately but continued to receive pay through September 30, 2025. GAO found that OPM could not easily and accurately isolate workforce-reduction leave because it was reported with other general administrative leave, and the underlying data also included errors such as holidays recorded as administrative leave.
Why CMCoE cares
Workforce reductions are usually justified as long-term savings, but leaders need a reliable view of the short-term cost to test that claim. A dedicated reporting category would make the tradeoff visible instead of mixing it into a broad leave bucket.
Regulatory fine print
The $6.7 billion figure is GAO's estimate based on program assumptions and payroll-provider data, not an amount separately tracked by OPM. GAO said data errors could overstate total administrative leave, and the report does not determine whether the program produced net savings over time.
Sources
- GAO - Federal Workforce: Deferred Resignation Program Largely Responsible for Sixfold Increase in Paid Administrative Leave Salary Costs (U.S. Government Accountability Office, )
