Federal Government Pay Scale: Grades, Steps, and Locality Pay

The federal government pay scale most civilian white-collar employees are paid on is called the General Schedule, or GS. It sets base salaries on a grid of 15 grades and 10 steps within each grade, with 2026 base pay running from $22,584 at GS-1, Step 1 to $164,301 at GS-15, Step 10. A locality adjustment tied to where you work is then added on top, ranging from 17.06 percent to 46.34 percent in 2026.1Federal Register. January 2026 Pay Schedules

The Grade and Step Grid

Every GS position sits at one of 15 grades. GS-1 covers the most basic work; GS-15 covers senior professionals who often run programs or lead teams.2U.S. Office of Personnel Management. General Schedule Within your grade, you move through 10 steps as you accumulate time and acceptable performance. Each step is worth about 3 percent, so step 10 pays roughly 30 percent more than step 1 of the same grade.3USAJOBS Help Center. Pay

Most new hires start at step 1. Your grade reflects what the job is; your step reflects where you are in a within-grade progression that can stretch across nearly two decades.

2026 Base Salaries by Grade

The 2026 GS table reflects a 1.0 percent across-the-board increase over the prior year. These are the base numbers before locality pay is applied:

  • GS-1, Step 1: $22,584
  • GS-5, Step 1: $34,799
  • GS-7, Step 1: $43,106
  • GS-9, Step 1: $52,727
  • GS-11, Step 1: $63,795
  • GS-13, Step 1: $90,925
  • GS-15, Step 1: $126,384
  • GS-15, Step 10: $164,301

These figures are the floor. Nearly every federal employee earns more than the bare base rate because of the locality adjustment described below.4U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Salary Table 2026-GS

Locality Pay by Where You Work

Federal law requires locality-based comparability payments so that GS salaries stay competitive with private-sector wages in each region.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5304 – Locality-Based Comparability Payments The Bureau of Labor Statistics runs the pay surveys that drive the numbers, and the adjustment is applied as a percentage on top of your base salary.

There are 58 locality pay areas in 2026, and the adjustment ranges from 17.06 percent to 46.34 percent.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Locality Pay Area Definitions To see what that means in dollars, take a GS-9, Step 1 employee earning the $52,727 base:

  • In the Washington, D.C. area (33.94 percent), roughly $61,724 in real terms.
  • In the San Francisco Bay Area (46.34 percent), roughly $77,147.
  • In any location not inside one of the 57 named metropolitan areas, covered by the “Rest of United States” designation at 17.06 percent, about $61,722.

Even the lowest locality tier adds a meaningful amount. Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are also inside the locality pay system rather than the older cost-of-living allowance system they used to be on, and that matters for retirement because locality pay counts toward your pension calculation while the old allowance did not.7U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Nonforeign Areas

How Your Grade and Step Are Set at Hiring

Your starting grade is tied to a mix of education and experience. OPM’s general guidelines line up like this, though individual job announcements can set stricter requirements:8U.S. Department of Labor. Guidelines to GS Grade Level Equivalencies

  • GS-2: high school diploma with no additional experience.
  • GS-5: bachelor’s degree.
  • GS-7: bachelor’s degree with superior academic achievement (such as a B average or higher), or one year of graduate study.
  • GS-9: master’s degree.
  • GS-11: doctoral degree or equivalent professional degree.

Work experience can substitute for education in many cases, and some occupational series set their own qualification standards. Federal law enforcement has its own entry requirements and pay supplements, for example.

Most new hires enter at step 1, but an agency can set starting pay at any step up to step 10 using the superior qualifications and special needs pay-setting authority. That decision has to be made before you start; it cannot be applied retroactively.9U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Superior Qualifications and Special Needs Pay-Setting Authority The agency can justify the higher step based on the quality of your credentials against others in the field or a documented special staffing need, and it can initiate the request on its own without you asking.

When you’re later promoted to a higher grade, the “two-step promotion rule” governs your new salary. The agency finds the lowest rate in the new grade that exceeds your current pay by at least two step increases of your old grade, so a promotion always produces a meaningful raise rather than a paper move to a bigger number.10U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Promotions

Moving Up Through the Steps

Within-grade step increases run on a fixed schedule set by statute. The waits get longer the further you climb:11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5335 – Periodic Step-Increases

  • Steps 1 through 4: 52 weeks between each step.
  • Steps 4 through 7: 104 weeks between each step.
  • Steps 7 through 10: 156 weeks between each step.

Reaching step 10 from step 1 takes about 18 years of acceptable performance. You don’t apply for a step increase; you receive it as long as you meet your performance standards and finish the required time in step. A supervisor can delay or deny an increase, but only through a formal written determination that you can appeal.

Employees who earn the highest available performance rating can also receive a Quality Step Increase, which moves you up one step ahead of the normal schedule.12U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Quality Step Increase A QSI is limited to once every 52 weeks and requires you to be below step 10. If a QSI lands you at step 4 or step 7, the longer waiting period for the next bracket starts fresh. Because a QSI is a permanent bump to base pay, it typically outperforms a one-time cash bonus over the course of a career.

Extra Pay on Top of Base

Regularly scheduled work outside standard daytime hours earns premiums layered on top of your base and locality rate. Night work, defined as regularly scheduled hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., pays a 10 percent differential.13U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Night Pay for General Schedule Employees Regularly scheduled Sunday work pays a 25 percent premium.14U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Premium Pay (Title 5) They stack; a Sunday night shift picks up both.

Agencies also have cash incentives outside the regular scale. Recruitment and relocation incentives can run up to 25 percent of annual basic pay, and OPM can waive that ceiling up to 50 percent for a critical staffing need, with total incentive payments capped at 100 percent of annual basic pay.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5753 – Recruitment and Relocation Bonuses Retention incentives work similarly and are offered to employees the agency believes are likely to leave. All three usually come with a service agreement, so leaving early can mean paying money back. Cybersecurity, medical, and engineering roles are common candidates.

Pay Caps That Override the Math

The GS grid plus locality doesn’t have a truly open ceiling. A GS employee’s locality-adjusted pay cannot exceed Executive Schedule Level IV, which trims salaries at the top of the grid in high-locality areas. A GS-15, Step 10 in the San Francisco Bay Area would calculate to more than $240,000 with the 46.34 percent adjustment, but the actual paycheck is limited to the Level IV rate.

A separate annual cap limits total compensation, including base pay, locality pay, overtime, bonuses, and other payments, at $253,100 for 2026, matching Executive Schedule Level I.16Office of Personnel Management. January 2026 Pay Adjustments Senior Executive Service members under a certified performance appraisal system have a higher aggregate cap of $292,300, tied to the Vice President’s salary.

When the General Schedule Doesn’t Apply

Not every federal job sits on the GS scale, so if the role you’re looking at is one of the following, the numbers above aren’t the right reference.

The Senior Executive Service covers top-level leadership below presidential appointees. SES has no grades or steps. In 2026, SES base pay runs from $151,661 to $228,000 at agencies with a certified performance appraisal system, and from $151,661 to $209,600 at agencies without certification.17U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Salary Table 2026-ES

Blue-collar federal employees in trade, craft, and laboring positions are paid hourly under the Federal Wage System, which runs local pay surveys designed to match private-sector wages for equivalent work in the same area.18U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Wage System

OPM can also establish special pay rates that replace standard GS base pay for specific occupations, grades, and geographic areas where recruitment data shows the regular scale isn’t competitive.19Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5305 – Special Pay Authority Information technology and certain engineering fields are among the most common. Physicians, dentists, and other healthcare professionals at the Department of Veterans Affairs are paid under Title 38 of the U.S. Code, which uses a base-plus-market structure entirely outside the GS.