In September, FMA National President Linda Lentjes sent two letters -- to Department of the Navy Acting Secretary Hung Cao and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth -- expressing our ongoing concerns with salary inversion at the Department of the Navy and potentially elsewhere across the Department of Defense. Lentjes collaborated with FMA members at the four public shipyards and other naval installations on this effort.

This problem is significant, worsening, and increasingly affecting the Navy’s ability to retain and support its management workforce. In recent years, Federal Wage System (FWS) and Wage Grade (WG) employees have received major boosts in pay. We recognize that these increases are an important and well-deserved gain for FWS employees, and we support their receiving fair compensation for their work.

However, it is troubling when managers and supervisors earn less than the very employees they are charged to lead. Morale is understandably suffering among managers who recently accepted promotions and now regret their decisions because they would have earned more at their prior level had they not been “promoted.” This is harming the government's ability to recruit and retain strong leaders. Why would anyone want the extra responsibility and liability of managing people if it means a pay cut?

The issue will be further compounded if the GS pay freeze for 2027 is allowed to proceed. President Trump formally advanced a pay freeze for 2027 in his alternative pay plan at the end of August. More than 100 legislators wrote House and Senate leadership urging Congress to advance pay parity legislation (3.8 percent raise) or the FAIR Act (4.1 percent raise) for 2027. FMA endorsed the FAIR Act as a reasonable pay raise for 2027 and joined a coalition letter to all members of Congress in September urging action to prevent a pay freeze. You can read more about our efforts in another article in this edition of the Washington Report.

To date, we have not received a reply to either of our letters. We will keep you apprised of any updates on this issue. Additionally, at this time, all of the current concerns we have heard about this issue have come from the Department of the Navy. However, if you are impacted by this issue at a different branch of the military, or any other agency, please let us know! You can reach me via email at gstanford@fedmanagers.org.