Washington, DC — The Trump administration has put more than 100,000 federal employees, nearly 5% of the civilian workforce, on paid administrative leave, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Ironically, this expensive mass idling of civil servants is being done in the name of “government efficiency,” as engineered by Elon Musk’s controversial DOGE operation.

Under administrative leave, employees are paid and receive full benefits but are forbidden from doing official business and often barred from contact with their agencies or colleagues. During the first two months of the second Trump administration –

• More than 75,000 employees who accepted Musk’s “Fork in the Road” retirement offer have been placed on administrative leave for 8 months, until the end of the fiscal year;
• Another 24,000 probationary employees have been restored under court orders, but most did not return to their jobs and were placed on administrative leave;
• An estimated 3,600 employees from the Department of Education and USAID were placed on administrative leave while their agencies undergo dismantlement; and
• More than 550 employees working on environmental justice programs as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are also on administrative leave while their ultimate employment fate is decided.

The more than 100,000 civilian employees on paid leave amount to approximately 4.5% of the entire 2.2 million federal workforce. With the average annual federal salary and benefits package estimated at around $130,000, the cost to taxpayers for this many employees sitting idle runs into the billions.

Moreover, the net savings to taxpayers from eliminating these jobs because they may be replaced by contractors or shifted to new agencies (such as with the student loan program). In addition, it is unknown how many of the “Fork in the Road” retirees could or would have retired anyway without the bonus of an extra 8 months of free pay.

“Paying workers to remain idle is a warped efficiency,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, “The Musk ‘efficiency’ measures may end up costing taxpayers more than they purportedly save, not counting the costs of the disruptive collateral damage they have caused.”

A further irony is the mechanism of unlimited administrative leave, as exercised by Trump, is illegal; indefinite administrative leave was outlawed by Congress in 2016. While PEER had to sue the Office of Personnel Management to force the finalization of implementing regulations for the Administrative Leave Act, the statute itself clearly sets a ten-day limit in any calendar year.

“Casting public servants into professional limbo without any limit or due process is a personnel abuse which Congress rightfully banned,” added Whitehouse. “We are working to redress these recent violations and to ensure they cannot be repeated.”

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See average federal employee salary and benefits

Look at 10-day legal limit on administrative leave

Revisit the PEER suit against OPM