Written by: Abby Keeler, BS and Kayla Reed-Fitzke, PhD, LMFT
Military spouses are often on the move and/or have semi-frequent changes in responsibilities, thanks to the nature of relocations and deployments. The resultant instability can take a toll on the military family, especially on spouses’ careers. We’ve spoken to how employers and organizations can make these transitions smoother in previous blogs, which highlight the importance of making remote work available. One of the best ways to recruit military spouse talent is to implement a remote onboarding process and allow flexible scheduling or remote work (SHRM, 2024). Remote work can offer more stability and solidity through challenging transition periods.
As many military spouses are seeking out remote options, it’s important for service providers working in the employment space to stay informed on legislative changes and priorities that shape remote opportunities. In this blog, we highlight the recent Presidential Memorandum: Return to In-Person Work, and the subsequent exemption for military spouses and foreign service spouses.
Military Spouses and Government Work
The Presidential Memorandum (The White House, 2025), published on January 20th, 2025, stated:
“Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary. This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law.”
Although concise, this memorandum has a great impact on executive branch agencies and departments. A sizeable portion of those employees are military spouses who are employed by the government. Below, you will find a chart that shows the sectors military spouses are employed within:
(Table Attribution: U.S. Government Accountability Office (2024). GAO-24-106263)
This graph, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO, 2024), shows that government was the third-largest employment sector among part-time military spouses, and the second largest among those working full time. According to the GAO data, there are 73,000 military spouses employed full time across federal, state, and local governments (2024), with about 46,000 working for the Department of Defense.
Exemption of the Memorandum
As demonstrated, many military spouses hold government positions and were initially instructed to return to office. Shortly thereafter, on February 12th, 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (2025) released a memorandum exempting military spouses and foreign service spouses from the return-to-work mandate. The memo allows agencies to continue hiring military spouses to remote work positions, helping military spouses stay employed. This is critical information for many military spouses who are unemployed and seeking remote work.
Staying on Top of Legislative Priorities
In order to provide up-to-date service for military spouses seeking remote work, it’s critical to stay informed on up-and-coming legislative efforts that may impact the opportunities provided to military spouses. In addition to tracking related executive orders and memorandums, it can be useful to check on legislation making its way through the Senate and House. For example, there are current efforts to expand the Military Spouse Non-Competitive Appointing Authority to include remote work positions. To search for upcoming legislative action, you can go to congress.gov and search for ‘military spouse’ to see what may be relevant for the work you do with military spouses. The Department-State Liaison Office has “military spouse employment and economic opportunities” as one of their top 10 priorities. You can look to their site to stay informed as to the status of various state policies they are tracking and advocating for.
References:
Lopez, C. T. (2025, February 18). Military spouses exempted from return-to-work mandate. U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4069473/military-spouses-exempted-from-return-to-work-mandate/
Society for Human Resource Management. (2024). Research: Insight to action: Leveraging the potential of military spouse talent. SHRM Foundation. Retrieved from https://shrm-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v1719327509/Foundation/CPR-240843_Research_Insight_to_Action-_Leveraging_the_Potential_of_Military_Spouse_Talent_R5-DIGITAL.pdf
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2024, February 8). Military spouse employment: Part-time workforce characteristics and perspectives (GAO-24-106263). https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-24-106263
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (2025, February 12). Guidance on exempting military spouses and Foreign Service spouses from agency return to office plans [Memorandum]. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/latest-memos/guidance-on-exempting-military-spouses-rto.pdf
The White House. (2025, January 20). Return to in-person work. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/
Cover Photo: DC Studio | Adobe Stock 505613192
