GS-1 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $22,584 Base, Up to $41,338

GS-1 base pay, step by step

Base rates before locality pay, from the OPM 2026 General Schedule table, a year and an hour: the hourly rate is the annual rate divided by 2,087 hours, rounded to the cent (5 U.S.C. 5504(b)). The waits between steps are set by 5 CFR 531.405; the step increase calculator works out the date of your next one.
Step	Base rate	Hourly	Increase	Wait (weeks)	Total (years)
Step 1	$22,584	$10.82	—	—	0
Step 2	$23,341	$11.18	+$757	52	1
Step 3	$24,092	$11.54	+$751	52	2
Step 4	$24,840	$11.90	+$748	52	3
Step 5	$25,589	$12.26	+$749	104	5
Step 6	$26,028	$12.47	+$439	104	7
Step 7	$26,771	$12.83	+$743	104	9
Step 8	$27,519	$13.19	+$748	156	12
Step 9	$27,550	$13.20	+$31	156	15
Step 10	$28,248	$13.54	+$698	156	18

GS-1 steps are not evenly spaced: step 9 adds only $31 and step 2 adds $757, while from GS-3 up every step of a grade adds the same amount.

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $22,584 to $28,248 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-1

GS pay plan only: law enforcement officers on the GL plan are counted separately. Source: OPM Federal Workforce Data, employment snapshot for May 2026, the latest complete one (OPM notes that some Department of Defense (Department of War) components did not submit June and July 2026 data); OPM withholds the pay of 550,140 of the 1,279,389 GS records, every Department of Defense one among them, so pay figures cover only the rest; the national median wage, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, all occupations; what it can and cannot show.
Employees on GS-1	156 employees, 0.01% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-1 or higher	99.99% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	Not given: OPM publishes the pay of only 25 full-time GS-1 employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	0%
At step 10	3%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	1%
Law enforcement officers	The GL table begins at grade 3 and does not apply here

GS-1 is the least common of the fifteen grades, with 156 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Biological Science Technician (0404), Business and Industry Student Trainee (1199) and Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant (0303), and the Department of Agriculture employs the most of them, 105.

3% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the lowest share of any grade.

Every step of GS-1 is paid less an hour than GS-10 step 1, so an overtime hour is paid at time and a half at every step of the grade, in all 58 areas.

Is GS-1 a high grade?

No, GS-1 is the lowest grade of the schedule, with 156 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026, and even its top step with the highest locality pay, $41,338, is below the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-1 make an hour?

$10.82 to $13.54 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and even with the highest locality pay no step of it reaches the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-1 equivalent to?

Enlisted grades E-1 to E-3, category I, are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-1 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-2 and GS-3.

Source: DoD Instruction 1000.01 (Change 2, June 4, 2018), Table 2; that the equivalence gives civilians no rank or authority over military personnel is from its Enclosure 2, paragraph 4.b (what the instruction is for). This is not a pay equivalence: the grades in one row are not paid the same.
Military grade	E-1 to E-3
Geneva Conventions category	I, enlisted
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-2, GS-3

GS-1 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-1 step 5 in all 58 areas: $29,954 in Rest of U.S. to $37,447 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$7,493** apart for identical work. Sorted by the number on the paycheck; the last column divides it by the local price level, so it is comparable in what it buys. ▲ marks a cell cut to the $197,200 statutory ceiling. Best off in practice: Laredo, TX, where $31,114 buys what $35,781 buys at national average prices. Rest of U.S. has no price index of its own, so its last two columns are empty rather than guessed. Sources: OPM 2026 General Schedule tables; BEA Regional Price Parities 2024.
#	Locality	Salary	Price level	What it buys
1	San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA	$37,447	115.6	$32,390
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$35,300	112.6	$31,360
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$34,921	113.6	$30,750
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$34,545	98.6	$35,025
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$34,274	108.9	$31,478
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$34,218	111.9	$30,583
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$33,926	108.3	$31,336
8	State of Alaska	$33,870	102.4	$33,089
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$33,798	102.7	$32,895
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$33,667	111.1	$30,294
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$33,486	103.6	$32,324
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$33,399	105.8	$31,573
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$33,204	106.7	$31,128
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$33,041	100.3	$32,943
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$33,007	102.6	$32,185
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$32,657	104.8	$31,155
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$32,565	103.1	$31,589
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$32,275	105.4	$30,615
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$31,902	114.2	$27,946
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$31,677	100.1	$31,659
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$31,334	103.3	$30,328
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$31,326	96.9	$32,316
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$31,323	95.8	$32,681
24	Richmond, VA	$31,290	97.9	$31,975
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$31,280	98.2	$31,867
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$31,277	93.9	$33,301
27	State of Hawaii	$31,272	110.0	$28,442
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$31,257	95.5	$32,740
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$31,201	95.4	$32,716
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$31,196	93.1	$33,518
31	Laredo, TX	$31,114	87.0	$35,781
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$31,070	92.7	$33,519
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$30,970	94.7	$32,713
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$30,904	99.6	$31,039
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$30,796	98.1	$31,403
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$30,745	100.7	$30,529
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$30,714	95.1	$32,301
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$30,622	97.3	$31,456
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$30,597	100.2	$30,531
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$30,566	100.9	$30,279
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$30,561	98.7	$30,979
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$30,523	96.9	$31,501
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$30,443	92.5	$32,896
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$30,433	89.1	$34,164
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$30,400	97.9	$31,039
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$30,395	94.7	$32,091
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$30,279	95.5	$31,690
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$30,256	91.6	$33,015
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$30,254	91.9	$32,917
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$30,233	95.7	$31,593
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$30,198	91.7	$32,931
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$30,177	100.0	$30,175
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$30,164	97.0	$31,086
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$30,111	100.3	$30,007
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$30,105	102.2	$29,469
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$30,100	92.7	$32,480
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$30,072	101.0	$29,770
58	Rest of U.S.	$29,954	—	—

What a GS-1 earns where you are

GS-1, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$34,274

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-1 to GS-2

The step a GS-1 lands on at GS-2 by the two-step rule, and the base increase; a promotion also restarts the wait for the next step, counted at the new step. The same row on the promotion calculator works for any area.
At GS-1	Lands on GS-2	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$2,809
Step 2	Step 1	+$2,052
Step 3	Step 2	+$1,905
Step 4	Step 3	+$1,999
Step 5	Step 3	+$1,250
Step 6	Step 4	+$1,522
Step 7	Step 4	+$779
Step 8	Step 6	+$1,158
Step 9	Step 7	+$1,946
Step 10	Step 8	+$2,067

No time-in-grade minimum applies to a promotion to GS-2: up to GS-5 there is none, as long as the move is no more than two grades above the lowest grade held in the past 52 weeks (5 CFR 300.604).