Understanding the GS Pay Scale

How Federal Pay Works

The General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale for federal civilian employees. It has 15 grades (GS-1 through GS-15) and 10 steps within each grade. Your total pay = Base Pay + Locality Pay.

Grade Levels Explained

• GS-1 to GS-4: Entry-level, clerical, or trainee positions. Often for students or people with a high school diploma.
• GS-5 to GS-7: Bachelor's degree entry level. Most college graduates start here.
• GS-9 to GS-11: Master's degree entry or experienced professionals. Journey-level positions.
• GS-12 to GS-13: Senior technical or supervisory positions. This is where most career feds land.
• GS-14 to GS-15: Management and senior expert positions. Division directors, program managers.
• SES: Senior Executive Service — the top tier above GS-15. Political appointees and career executives.

Locality Pay

The base GS pay table applies nationwide, but locality pay adds a percentage based on your duty station. In 2026, locality pay ranges from about 17% (Rest of U.S.) to over 35% (San Francisco, New York). Washington, DC locality pay is about 33%. This means a GS-13 in DC earns roughly $117K-$153K, while the same grade in rural Alabama earns about $87K-$113K.

Step Increases

Within each grade, you advance through 10 steps based on time-in-grade:

• Steps 1→4: 1 year between each step
• Steps 4→7: 2 years between each step
• Steps 7→10: 3 years between each step

It takes about 18 years to go from Step 1 to Step 10 in a single grade. Each step increase is roughly 3% of your salary.

Grade Promotions

Many positions have promotion potential (e.g., "GS-9/11/12"). This means you'll automatically be promoted to the next grade after one year of satisfactory performance, without competing. These are called "career ladder" positions and are the fastest way to increase your federal salary.