Data / Federal rules / 2025-22738
Recruitment and Relocation Incentive Waivers
The Personnel Management Office published this final rule in the Federal Register on December 15, 2025. It took effect on February 13, 2026.
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What the agency says
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing a final rule to expand the authority to approve waivers of the normal payment limitations on recruitment and relocation incentives. An expansion of the waiver approval authority provides agencies with access to higher payment limitations for these flexibilities without requesting approval from OPM. In addition, this final rule gives agencies flexibility to set the length of the required service period for recruitment incentives to a period less than 6 months but not more than 4 years, which aligns the service requirements for recruitment incentives with those for relocation incentives.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2025-22738
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Final rule
- Agency
- Personnel Management Office
- Published
- December 15, 2025
- Takes effect
- February 13, 2026
- Dates
- This final rule is effective February 13, 2026.
- Docket
- Docket ID: OPM-2023-0027
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 3206-AO36
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 5 CFR 575
- Topics
- Government employees; Wages
- Significant
- Yes, under Executive Order 12866
- Pages
- 12
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| Employment in the Excepted Service 2026-19222 · significant | Proposed rule | Sep 18 |
| Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: Optimizing FEHB Plan Offerings 2026-18944 | Proposed rule | Sep 15 |
| Promoting Employee Accountability 2026-18943 | Proposed rule | Sep 15 |
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Everything from the Personnel Management Office · Rules on government employees · Rules on wages · Published in December 2025
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.