Executive Schedule Pay Scale: Levels, Adjustments, and SES Impact

The Executive Schedule pay scale sets the salaries for the federal government’s top political appointees across five levels, and for 2026 the official rates run from $253,100 at Level I down to $184,900 at Level V.¹ Those are the numbers on the books. What most covered appointees actually take home is lower, because a congressional pay freeze has held their paychecks below the official schedule for years.

2026 Executive Schedule Rates

The five levels, effective January 2026, pay the same annual salary anywhere in the country. There is no locality adjustment on the Executive Schedule, so a Level III official in Washington earns the same as one in San Francisco.¹

Level I: $253,100
Level II: $228,000
Level III: $209,600
Level IV: $197,200
Level V: $184,900

What Appointees Actually Get Paid

Congress has repeatedly frozen the paychecks of senior political appointees through appropriations riders, producing a second, lower set of “payable” rates that sit below the official schedule. The most recent freeze was extended through January 30, 2026, by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026.² During the freeze, the payable rates for covered appointees are:

Level I: $203,500 (official rate $253,100)
Level II: $183,100 (official rate $228,000)
Level III: $168,400 (official rate $209,600)
Level IV: $158,500 (official rate $197,200)
Level V: $148,500 (official rate $184,900)

The Level I gap alone is nearly $50,000, and that spread has widened as freezes have piled up over the years. Whether the freeze continues past January 30, 2026 depends on later appropriations legislation, so the payable figures can shift mid-year.

The freeze covers political appointees in Executive Schedule positions, noncareer members of the Senior Executive Service paid at or above the official Level IV rate, chiefs of mission, ambassadors at large, and certain other politically appointed employees.² Career officials whose pay is capped by an Executive Schedule level are not directly frozen, though the official rates still act as their ceiling. While the freeze is in effect, a covered appointee generally cannot receive any pay increase unless they move to a different covered position with higher-level duties and a pre-established higher pay range.

Who Sits at Each Level

Title 5 of the U.S. Code lists the positions assigned to each level, and the pattern tracks how close an official sits to the President in the chain of command.³

Level I

Level I is reserved for the most powerful appointed roles. All fifteen Cabinet secretaries sit here, including the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Interior, along with the Attorney General. It also covers the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.⁴

Level II

Level II holds the deputy secretaries who run day-to-day operations at major departments, the civilian secretaries of the military branches, and the heads of prominent independent agencies. Examples include the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of NASA, the Administrator of the EPA, the Director of the CIA, the Director of OPM, and each member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors other than the Chairman.⁵

Level III

Level III generally covers undersecretaries of major departments and the chairs of federal boards and commissions. These officials typically lead a large policy division inside a department or run a mid-sized independent agency.

Levels IV and V

Level IV is the most populated tier, covering most assistant secretaries, general counsels, and chief financial officers across the departments. Named positions at this level include the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Director of the Bureau of the Census.⁶ Level V rounds out the scale with directors of smaller offices and specialized advisory roles. Most positions at these two tiers require presidential nomination and Senate confirmation, though some are filled through other appointment authorities.

How Annual Adjustments Work

When no freeze is in effect, Executive Schedule rates adjust at the start of the first pay period on or after January 1 each year. The adjustment percentage is based on the Employment Cost Index, which tracks changes in private-sector wages and salaries, and the statute caps the Executive Schedule increase at whatever percentage the General Schedule receives in the same year. The two systems generally move together.⁷

The President typically issues an executive order near the end of the prior calendar year setting the new rates, and OPM then publishes updated salary tables. The final dollar amount is rounded to the nearest $100.⁷ Congress can override the normal formula through legislation, either by freezing pay or by specifying a different percentage. So the adjustment mechanism runs every year even when the actual paychecks don’t move.

Why the Scale Matters Beyond Appointees

The Executive Schedule directly covers roughly 800 appointed positions, but several of its levels act as hard ceilings for far larger groups of federal employees. That’s why freezes at the top produce compression further down.

Senior Executive Service

The Senior Executive Service covers roughly 8,000 career and noncareer executives, and its pay range is defined by Executive Schedule levels. The minimum SES salary equals 120 percent of the GS-15 step 1 rate. The maximum depends on whether the agency has a performance appraisal system certified by OPM: certified agencies can pay SES members up to the Level II rate of $228,000, and agencies without certification are capped at the Level III rate of $209,600.⁸⁹

The aggregate annual pay limit for SES members, which counts bonuses and awards on top of base salary, is pegged to Level I ($253,100 in 2026).¹⁰ For certified agencies, the aggregate cap rises to the Vice President’s total annual compensation, which is higher than Level I.

General Schedule Ceilings and Pay Compression

High-performing GS employees in expensive metropolitan areas can see their base pay plus locality adjustment bump up against the Level IV or Level V ceiling. When multiple GS grades and SES positions all hit the same cap, the result is pay compression, where a GS-15 in San Francisco can earn the same total as a senior executive with far broader responsibilities. Federal agencies point to this as a persistent problem in recruiting experienced professionals from the private sector.

Aggregate Pay and Ethics Thresholds Tied to the Levels

Beyond the cap on base salary, federal law imposes a separate ceiling on total compensation, covering bonuses, performance awards, recruitment and retention incentives, overtime, and similar payments. For most executive branch employees, total pay in a calendar year cannot exceed the Level I rate in effect at year’s end.¹⁰ When an employee is on track to exceed the limit, the agency defers the excess rather than cutting it, taking discretionary payments like bonuses out first and nondiscretionary items like overtime next. Base pay is never deferred, and deferred amounts are generally paid as a lump sum at the start of the next calendar year.¹¹

The pay scale also drives several ethics thresholds. Federal employees whose base pay reaches 86.5 percent of the Level II rate are classified as “senior employees” for post-employment restrictions, which limit lobbying and representational work after they leave government. At the 2026 Level II rate of $228,000, that threshold falls near $197,000, and officials above it face a one-year cooling-off period before contacting their former agency on behalf of outside clients. Non-General Schedule employees above 120 percent of the GS-15 step 1 rate must file public financial disclosure reports, and covered noncareer employees face an annual cap on outside earned income equal to 15 percent of the Level II rate. These thresholds move automatically each January when the underlying rates change.

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Salary Table No. 2026-EX
2
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Updated Guidance – Pay Freeze for Certain Senior Political Officials
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5311 – The Executive Schedule
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5312 – Positions at Level I
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5313 – Positions at Level II
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5315 – Positions at Level IV
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5318 – Adjustments in Rates of Pay
8
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Senior Executive Service – Compensation
9
Federal Register. January 2026 Pay Schedules
10
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 530 Subpart B – Aggregate Limitation on Pay
11
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Aggregate Limitation on Pay