Federal Employee Awards: Only Exceptional Workers to Receive Top Amounts
The Trump Administration released new guidance on giving awards to federal employees, both monetary and non-monetary, with the goal of ensuring that only “exceptional” performers get top amounts, while those rated “fully successful” get less of the pie.
In the guidance, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said only employees who have demonstrated “genuinely exceptional individual performance and contributions to the agency” should receive the largest performance awards and pay adjustments.
OPM Director Scott Kupor wrote that the administration wants to change the federal workplace culture and wants to stress rigorous assessment of an employee’s abilities.
“Too often, inflated and subjective performance ratings have resulted in dollars available for performance awards being distributed broadly across the majority of employees, thereby diminishing the provision of meaningful bonuses and awards to reward the most deserving employees,” Director Kupor said.
The director noted that in fiscal year (FY) 2024 the average award for an employee rated “fully successful” was 2.4 percent of their annual salary, while an employee rated “outstanding” had an average award of 4.2 percent of annual salary.
In fact, OPM recently restricted the number of employees in the Senior Executive Service (SES) who can be rated at Level Four (Exceeds Fully Successful) or Level Five (Outstanding).
OPM noted that due to this change the award amount “should increase significantly” for those who are “truly deserving.” And it stated that “although agencies may encounter budgetary reductions in FY 2026, it is important to prioritize rewarding outstanding performance.”
Presidential Rank Awards Returning
Also included in the guidance was a section reinstating the Presidential Rank Awards (PRAs) for FY 2026, after being paused in 2025. OPM notes that agency leadership must be involved in determining agency nominees and that the awards are being used to “motivate truly outstanding performance.”
