All HHS workers given $25,000 voluntary buyout offer, source says

All employees in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were notified Friday of the option to voluntarily resign in exchange for a $25,000 payment, a source familiar with the situation told CBS News.

The department-wide email offered a “voluntary separation incentive payment,” the source said. Employees have been given until a deadline of March 14 to reply.

Friday’s offer is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the size of federal workforce and shrink the government’s budget through mass layoffs and financial cuts. That process has been primarily carried out through the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk.

Federal agencies announced more than 62,200 job cuts in February, a number which surged U.S. layoffs to their highest mark since July 2020.

And last week, a similar buyout of $15,000 to $25,000 was offered to employees in the Social Security Administration.

The far-reaching HHS has more than 80,000 employees and oversees several major health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Thousands of probationary workers across HHS were informed last month they would be fired. Probationary workers are generally those who have been on the job for less than a year.

It’s unclear how the layoffs and buyouts will impact some of the challenges facing HHS and its new chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including addressing the bird flu outbreak which has contributed to a spike in the price of eggs, as well as a measles outbreak which has claimed at least two lives.

In January, immediately after President Trump took office, the over two million civilian federal workers were offered deferred resignations in which they would get paid through September without being required to show up for work. About 75,000 workers accepted that offer, which has been challenged in court. 

contributed to this report.