Why 🐵 UnitedStatesNews-NoOpEd picked: US government paid federal employees $9.5bn not to work amid Doge cuts – report

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Source: theguardian.com

<p>GAO report shows how use paid administrative leave rose by 435% from 2023 to 2025 and incurred a sixfold cost</p><p>The US government paid federal workers $9.5bn not to work in 2025 as part of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Trump administration</a>’s attempts to shrink the federal workforce.</p><p>As part of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/25/musk-doge-employees-resign" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">efforts</a> by the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/16/elon-musk-doge-government-privatization" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">spearheaded by Elon Musk</a>, federal agencies’ use of paid administrative leave rose 435% from 2023 to 2025 – costing six times what the government spent in 2023 – according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-108477.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">new report</a> released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent watchdog.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/16/doge-payments-federal-worker-leave" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Continue reading...</a>

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