Military spouses and foreign service officer spouses have been exempted from the return-to-work mandate for federal workers. (Facebook/Military Onesource)

Spouses of active-duty service members and overseas foreign service officers are exempt from recent rules requiring nearly all federal government employees to return to the workplace, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said in a memo Tuesday.  

Agencies are also allowed to continue hiring spouses to remote work positions, according to the memo sent by Charles Ezell, acting director of the government’s personnel agency.

The directive also covers the spouses of service members who died while on active duty if the spouse hasn’t remarried, as well as those married to service members who retired with a 100% disability rating. 

The memo was released a week after House lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to exempt military spouses from President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 directive that federal employees return to their respective offices.

The decision to exempt spouses comes amid concerns about the economic ripple effect on military families in connection with the presidential order. In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, teleworking arrangements proliferated across government.

Applying the new return-to-office regulation to spouses would be disruptive for military spouses, who already are at a disadvantage when it comes to finding work, according to advocates.

Frequent moves that come with the military lifestyle are one of the factors that complicate a spouse’s employment situation.

One in five military spouses is unemployed — nearly four times the national unemployment rate — according to military data.

And 45% of spouses consider themselves underemployed, meaning that they are doing jobs below their education and experience levels, according to a June 2024 Army statement.

“While many civilians can relocate to take an attractive job offer or gain notice in a more promising market, military spouses must make do where they are,” the Army said in the statement, which outlined the challenges of spouse employment.