Federal Firefighters Bill Boosts Retirement Pay by Counting Overtime, Caps Workweek at 60 Hours

The new Federal Firefighters Families First Act is a major policy upgrade aimed squarely at how the federal government pays and retains its firefighting workforce. Simply put, this bill is designed to close the pay and benefits gap between federal firefighters and their counterparts working for state or local governments. It does this through three main changes: adjusting pay calculations, making big changes to retirement benefits, and capping the regular workweek.

Retirement Pay Gets a Serious Upgrade

If you’re a federal firefighter, this is the section that matters most. Currently, when the government calculates your retirement annuity—your pension—it looks at your average pay. This bill mandates a crucial change: it requires that a portion of your regular, scheduled overtime hours be included in that average pay calculation (Sec. 3). This is a game-changer. Firefighters often work long, scheduled shifts that include built-in overtime, but that extra pay hasn't always counted toward their pension base. By including half (1/2) of the basic hourly rate for those scheduled overtime hours in the average pay, the bill effectively raises the baseline for their future retirement checks. For someone planning their exit strategy after 20 or 30 years of service, this could mean a significantly higher annual annuity, making the job much more financially secure long-term.

The 60-Hour Workweek Ceiling

Another major win for work-life balance is the establishment of a maximum regular workweek. The bill directs the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to set rules ensuring that the regular, repeating workweek for federal firefighters cannot exceed an average of 60 hours per week (Sec. 4). This doesn’t mean every shift is exactly 60 hours, but it sets a clear ceiling on the average workload over time. For the individual firefighter, this provides a clearer boundary between work and personal life, addressing the strain of unpredictable or excessively long scheduled hours. However, the OPM has a full year to write these rules, so the real-world impact will depend on how they define “regular” and “average” within that 60-hour cap.

The Fine Print: Pay Adjustments for Others

While the bill is primarily focused on firefighters, Section 2 introduces a technical change that could affect other federal employees. It revises the formula used to calculate certain federal employee pay rates by swapping out the figure $2,756 for $2,087 in specific subsections of the U.S. Code governing pay (Sec. 2). This is highly technical, but these figures are often used as multipliers or baselines in complex pay calculations. For the average person, it’s impossible to know without seeing the specific pay schedule whether this change will increase or decrease their pay, but it's a detail worth noting because it touches compensation outside of the firefighting corps.

When Does This Kick In?

If you’re a federal firefighter waiting for these changes, you need to know the effective date. The new rules only apply to employees who separate from service 60 days after the law is officially enacted (Sec. 5). If a firefighter retires or leaves the service before that 60-day window closes, their retirement benefits will be calculated under the old rules. This provides a clear cutoff date for implementation and prevents people from rushing their retirement decisions before the new, potentially higher, benefit calculation takes effect.