Trump endorses a 2.6% raise for federal employees

President Trump endorsed a 2.6% pay raise for federal employees on Friday that would take effect on the first applicable pay period beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2020.

The big picture: Without the raise, federal employees would see a much larger automatic increase, thanks to a "complex federal employee pay law" that requires a default pay bump if Congress doesn’t legislate one by the end of 2019, the Washington Post reports.

Flashback: 400,000 federal employees worked without pay during last year's 35-day partial government shutdown. Last year, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate a 2.1% raise for federal workers.