Compare GS pay between any two locality areas, 2026

Washington, DC against Rest of U.S., grade by grade

The same grade and step pays $14,628 more a year in Washington, DC. Whether that leaves you better off is a different question, and this section answers it for every grade.

How cheap would it have to be?

Rest of U.S. has no metropolitan price index of its own, so the straight comparison cannot be made, but turned round the question has an exact answer.

A GS-12 step 5 in Washington, DC earns $116,071 where prices stand at 108.9 against a national average of 100. That buys what $106,601 buys at average U.S. prices. The same grade on the Rest of U.S. rate earns $101,443. For those two to come out equal, the place you live on the Rest of U.S. rate would need a price level of 95.2 or below.

Of the 57 localities with published price data, 13 sit at or below that level — so the bar is reachable, but it rules out the expensive half of the country. If the job can be done from anywhere, this is the number that decides where.

The index describes what things cost now, not what they cost you: what that leaves out.

Step by step at GS-12

GS-12 step 1 in Washington, DC pays what Rest of U.S. pays only from step 6 of the same grade: that is the head start the duty station alone is worth.

Overtime is capped, and the cap differs

For an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, overtime above the hourly rate of GS-10 step 1 in your own area is capped at one and a half times that rate (the rule, and who it covers): GS-10 step 1 is $37.26 an hour in Washington, DC and $32.57 in Rest of U.S., so the cap is $55.89 against $48.86. A GS-12 step 5 earns $55.62 an hour in Washington, DC and $48.61 in Rest of U.S., and is paid $55.89 and $48.86 respectively for an overtime hour.

That is 0.5 percent more than an ordinary hour in both areas. At GS-12 step 5 the cap has all but caught up with the employee in both places.

Where raises stop counting

Washington, DC has 5 of its 150 cells pinned to the $197,200 statutory ceiling. Rest of U.S. has none: every step increase there is worth its full face value, which at the top grades takes back part of the headline gap.

What each area covers

Washington, DC is a list of 55 counties; Rest of U.S. is every duty station outside the named areas (what that covers). This pairing is usually an offer in Washington, DC against staying where you are.

The full Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA table: every grade and step. The full Rest of U.S. table: every grade and step. To put your own grade and step against either, use the pay calculator.

Every area against Rest of U.S.

Rest of U.S. pays $101,443 at GS-12 step 5, the floor of the schedule, and has no price index of its own, so the last column turns the question round: how cheap a Rest of U.S. duty station would have to be for its salary to buy as much as the named area’s.

In 4 of the 57 areas the last figure is 100 or more: there the Rest of U.S. rate buys as much as the named area’s even at average U.S. prices. Where the last figure is well below 100, the named area’s premium survives almost anywhere. What Rest of U.S. covers.

The former pages that set each of the six highest-paying areas against Rest of U.S. now lead to that area’s own page, which carries the same comparison; the change is dated on the corrections page.