Lawmakers propose 35% pay raise for federal prison workers

Date:  01-21-2026 Lawmakers from both parties and chambers of Congress this week introduced legislation that would institute a 35% pay raise for employees at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, in a bid to counter longstanding staffing shortages at federal correctional institutions.

For years, federal prisons have suffered chronic understaffing due to low pay and their location in often remote areas, leading to overuse of mandatory overtime and temporarily detailing support staff to correctional duties, a phenomenon known as “augmentation.” Though many prisons had employed retention incentives to boost workers’ pay by 10% to 25%, around 23,000 employees lost those payments when the bureau cancelled them last year, citing budget constraints. Workers at the bureau were among the federal employees to receive a 3.8% pay raise this month, as part of a 2.8% supplemental pay raise for federal law enforcement. Click here to read more.