Federal Firefighter Salary: GS Scale, Locality, and FERS

In 2026, a federal firefighter’s salary starts with a General Schedule base rate, then layers on locality pay, a firefighter-specific hourly formula for extended shifts, and overtime for hours beyond the 106-hour biweekly tour. A GS-7, Step 1 firefighter earns a base salary of $43,106 before geographic adjustments, and a GS-9, Step 1 earns $52,727.¹ Once locality and the extended-tour hours are factored in, total pay runs meaningfully higher. Each layer is worth understanding on its own, because the gap between the base table and take-home pay is where most of the confusion lives.

GS Grades and Base Pay

Federal firefighters are paid under the General Schedule, the same framework covering most white-collar civilian federal jobs. The system has 15 grades and 10 steps within each grade, with steps functioning as incremental raises tied to time in service and satisfactory performance.² A firefighter’s position is classified at a specific grade, and step determines where they fall within that grade’s pay range.

The 2026 GS table sets these Step 1 annual rates at the grades most common in federal firefighting:

GS-5, Step 1: $34,799
GS-7, Step 1: $43,106
GS-9, Step 1: $52,727
GS-11, Step 1: $63,795

These figures are nationwide and serve only as a starting point.¹ The base table is adjusted each January by an across-the-board raise; for 2026 that increase was 1.0 percent.³

The Office of Personnel Management’s classification standard for the Fire Protection and Prevention Series (GS-0081) assigns nonsupervisory firefighter work from GS-3 (trainee) through GS-9 (advanced life support). GS-4 and GS-5 cover most entry-level structural and airfield roles, GS-7 adds basic life support and hazardous materials response, and GS-8 and GS-9 incorporate intermediate and advanced life support duties. Supervisory grades run higher, with fire chief positions ranging from GS-7 at small installations to GS-13 at the largest and most complex facilities.⁴

Locality Pay

Every GS employee receives a locality pay adjustment designed to keep federal salaries competitive with private-sector wages in the same geographic area. In 2026, these adjustments range from 17.06 percent in the lowest-cost areas to 46.34 percent in the most expensive, spread across 58 locality pay areas.³ The percentage is set by the employee’s official duty station, not where they live.

The practical effect is large. A GS-7, Step 1 firefighter with a 2026 base of $43,106 could see an adjusted annual rate anywhere from roughly $50,460 in a low-cost locality to about $63,090 in a high-cost area like the San Francisco Bay Area. That spread of more than $12,000 on the same grade and step is driven entirely by duty station. Most employees who don’t fall into a named metropolitan area are covered by the “Rest of U.S.” rate, which carries the lowest adjustment.

The locality-adjusted salary is what matters for nearly every downstream calculation. When federal pay regulations refer to “annual rate of basic pay,” they almost always mean base plus locality, not the base alone.

The Firefighter Hourly Rate and the 106-Hour Tour

This is where federal firefighter pay diverges from other GS jobs. Firefighters in the GS-0081 series whose regular tour of duty averages at least 106 hours per biweekly pay period are covered by special pay rules under 5 U.S.C. § 5545b.⁵ The 106-hour figure reflects the standard firefighter schedule of roughly 53 hours per week, often built around 24-hour shifts with designated standby and sleep time.

A typical GS employee working a 40-hour week has their hourly rate calculated by dividing annual basic pay by 2,087 hours. For firefighters on the 106-hour tour, the divisor is 2,756 hours. Dividing the same annual salary by a larger number produces a lower hourly rate, but that rate is then multiplied across all nonovertime hours in the tour, including the extra 26 hours per pay period beyond the standard 80.⁶ The 2,756 factor is the 53-hour FLSA weekly overtime standard for firefighters multiplied by 52 weeks.

For firefighters whose schedule combines a basic 40-hour workweek with additional nonovertime hours, the calculation is split. Hours within the 80-hour biweekly base use the 2,087 divisor, and the additional nonovertime hours use 2,756.⁵ The extended schedule generates more total pay than a standard 40-hour position at the same grade and step, even though the per-hour rate is lower.

Overtime

Any hours a firefighter works beyond 106 in a biweekly pay period, or beyond 53 in an administrative workweek, count as overtime.⁵ For firefighters covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the overtime rate is one and a half times the firefighter hourly rate of basic pay. Between staffing shortages, emergency call-backs, and incident deployments, overtime can be a substantial share of annual earnings.

The FLSA’s Section 7(k) exemption for fire protection employees is what sets the overtime trigger at 106 hours over 14 days rather than the standard 40 hours per week.⁷ Agencies with different work-period lengths use a pro-rata formula based on the 212-hour standard for a 28-day cycle.

Premium Pay Firefighters Do Not Receive

The tradeoff for the firefighter pay formula is that it replaces most other premium pay categories. Under 5 U.S.C. § 5545b, a firefighter covered by the special pay rules receives overtime but is excluded from other premium pay under the same subchapter.⁸ Three categories other federal employees can receive are off the table:

Holiday premium pay. Firefighters under 5 U.S.C. § 5545b are not entitled to paid holiday time off or holiday premium pay.⁹
Night pay differential. GS employees normally earn a 10 percent differential for regularly scheduled work between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., but firefighters on the 106-hour tour do not receive it.¹⁰
Hazardous duty pay. Federal employees performing unusually dangerous work can otherwise receive a differential of up to 25 percent of basic pay under 5 U.S.C. § 5545(d), but firefighters under the special pay rules are ineligible because the hazards are considered accounted for in position classification.⁸

Firefighters who do not meet the 106-hour tour threshold and are not covered by 5 U.S.C. § 5545b may still qualify for some of these differentials. The exclusion applies specifically to those under the firefighter pay formula.

Wildland Firefighter Supplement

Wildland firefighters at the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior have been receiving a temporary salary supplement authorized by Section 40803 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The supplement adds up to $20,000 per year or 50 percent of base salary, whichever is less, and was funded through September 30, 2026, or until the allocated money runs out.¹¹ It has been extended multiple times, and Congress has been working on legislation to make wildland pay reform permanent, including proposals for a new special base rate structure and an incident response premium for days spent deployed to qualifying fires.¹² Whether those proposals become law is uncertain. If you’re a wildland firefighter, check with your agency’s HR office for current supplement status, since it has shifted with each appropriations cycle.

Step Increases and Promotions

Salary grows through two channels: step increases within the same grade and promotions to a higher grade. Within-grade increases are automatic raises earned by staying at an acceptable performance level for a set waiting period, and each step is worth roughly 3 percent of salary. The waiting periods are one year at Steps 1 through 3, two years at Steps 4 through 6, and three years at Steps 7 through 9.² Total time from Step 1 to Step 10 is 18 years.¹³ Because raises come less frequently as a career matures, grade promotions carry most of the long-term earnings growth.

When a firefighter is promoted, the two-step promotion rule under 5 U.S.C. § 5334(b) sets the new pay at the lowest rate in the higher grade that exceeds current pay by at least two step increases of the grade being left.¹⁴ That prevents a promotion from producing a trivial raise.

FERS Special Retirement

Federal firefighters are classified as special category employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System, with terms substantially more generous than what regular federal employees receive. A firefighter can retire with an immediate, unreduced annuity at any age with at least 25 years of creditable service.¹⁵ There is also a mandatory separation age of 57, after which a firefighter cannot remain in a firefighter position.¹⁶

The annuity formula is enhanced. For the first 20 years of service, the annuity equals 1.7 percent of the high-3 average salary per year. Service beyond 20 years is computed at 1.0 percent per year.¹⁷ The high-3 is the highest average basic pay earned during any three consecutive years, and it includes shift-rate adjustments but not overtime or bonuses.

A worked example: a firefighter retiring with 25 years of service and a high-3 average of $70,000 would receive an annual annuity of (1.7% × $70,000 × 20) + (1.0% × $70,000 × 5) = $23,800 + $3,500 = $27,300. A regular FERS employee with the same salary and service would receive only 1.0 percent per year across the whole period, or $17,500. Special-category employees do pay a higher retirement contribution from each paycheck to fund the enhanced benefit.

Putting the Numbers Together

Take a GS-7, Step 5 firefighter working a standard 106-hour biweekly tour at an installation with a 25 percent locality adjustment. In 2026, GS-7, Step 5 base pay is approximately $47,900. Add 25 percent locality, and the adjusted annual rate is roughly $59,875. Divide by 2,756 and the firefighter hourly rate is about $21.73. Multiply by 106 nonovertime hours per pay period across 26 pay periods, and scheduled annual pay lands near $59,875. Any hours beyond 106 in a pay period are paid at one and a half times the firefighter hourly rate, so even moderate overtime pushes total compensation meaningfully higher.

Layer on career progression across grades, step increases within each grade, and the enhanced FERS annuity, and the full compensation picture is considerably richer than the base pay table alone suggests. The system is complex by design, compensating for extended shifts and hazardous conditions through structural mechanisms rather than ad hoc bonuses.

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 2026 General Schedule Salary Table
2
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. General Schedule
3
Federal Register. January 2026 Pay Schedules
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Position Classification Standard for Fire Protection and Prevention Series GS-0081
5
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 550 Subpart M – Firefighter Pay
6
Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service. Federal Firefighter Pay Reference Guide PT-820
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 8 – Law Enforcement and Fire Protection Employees Under the FLSA
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC Part III, Subpart D, Chapter 55, Subchapter V
9
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Holidays Work Schedules and Pay
10
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Night Pay for General Schedule Employees
11
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Implementation of Section 40803 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – Interagency FAQs
12
U.S. Congress. Text – H.R. 1943 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) – Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act
13
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. OPM Guide to Processing Personnel Actions – Introduction to Within-Grade Increases
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5334 – Rate on Change of Position or Type of Appointment
15
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Types of Retirement
16
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. President Signs Federal Firefighters Retirement Age Fairness Act
17
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. FERS Annuity Computation