What it means for you
Starting in January 2022, companies working under new federal contracts had to pay their workers at least $15 an hour, with a raise each year for inflation. Tipped workers got the full rate by 2024. The minimum reached $17.75 in 2025, and then the order was revoked.
Who benefits: Workers employed by companies on federal service and construction contracts, such as janitors, cooks, and maintenance staff; the Labor Department estimated 327,300 of them would get a raise.
If you worked for a company doing work under a federal contract, such as cleaning a federal building, cooking in a base cafeteria, or maintaining federal property, this order set your pay floor at $15 an hour. It applied to new contracts and to old contracts that were renewed or extended starting January 30, 2022. You didn’t have to apply. Your employer had to pay it.
The floor went up each January to keep pace with prices, reaching $17.75 an hour in 2025. Tipped workers used to have a lower minimum on these contracts. The order phased that out, so by 2024 they got the full minimum with tips on top. It also covered workers with disabilities who had been paid below the minimum under special federal certificates. The Labor Department expected about 327,300 workers to get a raise.
President Joe Biden signed the order in April 2021. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s department issued the rule that put it into effect that November. The order built on a 2014 order from President Barack Obama, which had set a lower minimum for contract workers.
President Donald Trump revoked the order on March 14, 2025. The Labor Department stopped enforcing the $17.75 minimum. Only the lower Obama-era minimum is left, and it covers just older contracts.
Work and wagesLower costs
Where it stands, and how we know
Behind the effort to end it: Donald Trump (R).
Source for this status, checked November 11, 2026.
Sources
- Executive Order 14026: Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal ContractorsFederal Register, April 30, 2021
- Labor Dept. issues final rule requiring federal contractors to pay $15 minimum wageNextgov/FCW, November 23, 2021
- Minimum Wage for Contracts Covered by Executive Order 14026, Notice of Rate Change in Effect as of January 1, 2025Federal Register (U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division), September 30, 2024
- Executive Order 14026, Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal ContractorsU.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
- Government contracts minimum wageU.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, with no problems found. Confirmed the wage rates, worker estimate, coverage, implementation, revocation, and current $13.65 minimum for older contracts against Labor Department, Federal Register, and White House sources.
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