Employment and employability are top concerns for military spouses, who face not just the usual economic pressures impacting the job market, but the stress of having to transfer their skills to new duty stations every couple of years. And with unemployment of mil spouses continuing to hover around 20%, five times that of the general population, the ability to find and maintain remote or transferable work is a top issue for many military families. A recent Executive Order (EO) mandating a return to in-person work for federal employees raised questions as to whether more flexible work arrangements would continue for mil spouses.
In the past few years, federal initiatives have recognized and continued to strengthen employability of spouses through hiring preferences and by easing the transfer of licenses and certifications across state lines. Most recently, in June of 2023, an EO entitled “Advancing Economic Security for Military and Veteran Spouses, Military Caregivers, and Survivors” added initiatives to strengthen existing telework and remote work opportunities and improve the Domestic Employees Teleworking Overseas (DETO) program.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic remote work and telework had become more common for many workers. However, calls for a return to the workplace began as early as 2022. On January 20th, 2025, President Trump’s Order to “Return to In-Person Work” mandated that federal agencies finally prepare to do so. States like California and Texas have also recently followed suit.
The Order stated that “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.”
On January 27th, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memorandum entitled “Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans.” In a footnote to the memorandum, it stated that “Agencies should also exclude military spouses working remotely based on the Military Spouse Employment Act.” However, some have noted that this verbiage was vague and indecisive, leaving interpretation open to individual agencies. 46% of federal workers had participated in situational or routine telework in 2023 while approximately 10% engaged in full time remote work, according to one OPM report. With 46,000 mil spouses working for the Department of Defense alone, according to a 2024 GAO report, application of new policies would affect tens of thousands of military families.
These concerns were heard by National Legislators. On February 5th, Reps. Rob Wittman (R – VA) and Eugene Vindman (D- VA) introduced the Support Military Families Act. This bipartisan legislation would seek to codify the exemption from a federally mandated return-to-work into the law of the land. The bill is still in the first steps of the legislative process and waiting to be considered by committee before possibly being sent to the House and Senate. Whether or not this proposed legislation was mostly symbolic (congressional tracking site GovTrack.US gave it a 7% chance of making it beyond the committee process), it was a step that may have helped apply pressure for necessary clarifications.
On February 12th the OPM issued a memorandum with additional guidance, stating that military spouses were categorically exempt from the January EO. It defined military spouses as those who are married to an active-duty service member, married to a veteran who separated or retired and had 100% disability at time of discharge, widows/widowers who had not remarried and those married to members of the US Foreign Service on overseas assignments. This has since trickled down and been reflected in agency guidance to include a DOD Memorandum dated March 4th, 2025.
When military spouses are able to maintain steady employment, it is more than just a win for overall family quality of life, or even a matter of retaining talented individuals in the federal work force. Employed spouses increase the odds of their active-duty partners extending their service, and are therefore key to recruitment and retention within the armed forces. Fortunately, for now, military spouses will remain exempt from the federal return to in-person work executive order, and will continue to benefit from the flexibility that working remotely or telework offers their families.
