- GS pay scale 2026
- All grades
58 locality pay areasPage last changed 2026-10-07
List of GS grades explained: what each level from GS-1 to GS-15 means
The General Schedule has fifteen grades, GS-1 to GS-15: in 2026 base pay runs from $22,584 at GS-1 step 1 to $164,301 at GS-15 step 10, a locality payment between 17.06% and 46.34% goes on top, and the grade a job sits on follows from its duties and the qualifications it requires.
Under the 2027 proposal the base table stays at $22,584 for GS-1 step 1 to $164,301 for GS-15 step 10 (2027 pay raise tracker).
The grades at a glance
| Grades | What the level usually is | Usual entry | Base pay, step 1 to 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GS-1 to GS-4 | Clerical, trainee and technician entry jobs | GS-2 a high school diploma, GS-3 one year above high school, GS-4 two years, under OPM’s standard for clerical and administrative support positions | $22,584 to $40,436 |
| GS-5 to GS-7 | Entry to professional and administrative careers | GS-5 a bachelor’s degree, GS-7 a year of graduate study or superior academic achievement | $34,799 to $56,039 |
| GS-9 to GS-11 | Developmental and working-level professional jobs | GS-9 a master’s degree, GS-11 a doctorate | $52,727 to $82,938 |
| GS-12 | The full performance level of many professional career ladders | one year at GS-11 | $76,463 to $99,404 |
| GS-13 to GS-15 | Senior specialists, supervisors and managers | one year at the grade below | $90,925 to $164,301 |
The full 2026 pay table, every grade and step with any area’s locality pay, is on the home page.
The first three columns are nationwide base rates before any locality payment — no duty station in the United States pays them as they stand. The next two show the lowest and highest actual step-5 salary across all 58 localities. The last column counts how many cells in that grade are pinned to the $197,200 statutory ceiling somewhere in the country.
| Grade | Base step 1 | Base step 5 | Base step 10 | Lowest actual | Highest actual | At ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS-1 | $22,584 | $25,589 | $28,248 | $29,954 | $37,447 | — |
| GS-2 | $25,393 | $27,858 | $31,953 | $32,611 | $40,767 | — |
| GS-3 | $27,708 | $31,404 | $36,024 | $36,762 | $45,957 | — |
| GS-4 | $31,103 | $35,251 | $40,436 | $41,265 | $51,586 | — |
| GS-5 | $34,799 | $39,439 | $45,239 | $46,167 | $57,715 | — |
| GS-6 | $38,791 | $43,963 | $50,428 | $51,463 | $64,335 | — |
| GS-7 | $43,106 | $48,854 | $56,039 | $57,188 | $71,493 | — |
| GS-8 | $47,738 | $54,102 | $62,057 | $63,332 | $79,173 | — |
| GS-9 | $52,727 | $59,759 | $68,549 | $69,954 | $87,451 | — |
| GS-10 | $58,064 | $65,804 | $75,479 | $77,030 | $96,298 | — |
| GS-11 | $63,795 | $72,303 | $82,938 | $84,638 | $105,808 | — |
| GS-12 | $76,463 | $86,659 | $99,404 | $101,443 | $126,817 | — |
| GS-13 | $90,925 | $103,049 | $118,204 | $120,629 | $150,802 | — |
| GS-14 | $107,446 | $121,774 | $139,684 | $142,549 | $178,204 | 2 |
| GS-15 | $126,384 | $143,236 | $164,301 | $167,672 | $197,200 | 95 |
One group is not paid from this table
Federal law enforcement officers at grades 3 to 10 have their own base table, the GL table, with rates higher than the ones above; above grade 10 it stops and the ordinary schedule takes over. Since January 2026 many front-line law enforcement positions are also paid from OPM special rate tables that cover every grade. Both, and where each ends, are on the law enforcement pay page.
Promotions between grades
Above GS-15 sits the Senior Executive Service, on an entirely different pay system. Promotion between grades resets the waiting period for the next step increase, so a promotion that lands just before a step was due can be worth less in the first year than it looks. The step increase calculator gives the date of the next step, promotion or not.
How a job lands on a grade
Grades are assigned to the position, not to the person. A classifier evaluates the duties against published standards — how much independent judgment the work requires, how broad its impact is, how much supervision it receives — and the grade follows from that. Two people doing visibly similar work in different agencies can sit on different grades because their position descriptions differ, which is a common source of frustration and a legitimate thing to raise with HR.
Entry grades are governed by qualification standards rather than by negotiation. Under OPM’s standard for administrative and management positions a bachelor’s degree qualifies for GS-5, superior academic achievement or one year of graduate study for GS-7, a master’s for GS-9, and a doctorate for GS-11 (OPM qualification standards; the GS-5, GS-7, GS-9 and GS-11 pages give the full wording). Experience substitutes for education at a defined rate, and one year at the next-lower grade is the usual requirement for promotion.
Career ladders
Many federal positions are advertised as a ladder — GS-7/9/11, say — meaning the successful candidate enters at the lowest grade and is promoted non-competitively to the next as soon as the time-in-grade requirement is met and performance is acceptable. The advertised “full performance level” is the top of that ladder, and it is the number worth paying attention to when comparing offers: the entry grade is temporary, the full performance level is where the job settles.
Above the full performance level, further promotion generally requires competing for a different position. That is why the jump from GS-12 to GS-13 is such a visible barrier in federal careers — for many occupational series GS-12 is where the ladder ends.
What the base table is not
The rates on this page are base rates. No duty station in the United States pays them as they stand: every one falls inside a locality pay area, and the lowest of those still adds a double-digit percentage. The base table exists as the arithmetic starting point and as the reference for a handful of pay rules, not as anyone’s salary.
Roughly a third of federal employees are not paid from this table at all. Wage Grade trades positions use locality wage schedules built from local prevailing rates; the Senior Executive Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs Title 38 medical positions and several demonstration projects all run their own systems. Special rate schedules add another layer: where one covers an occupation and location, the employee receives the higher of the special rate and the locality rate — never both added together.