GS-10 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $58,064 Base, Up to $110,456

GS-10 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	$58,064	$27.82	—	—	0
Step 2	$59,999	$28.75	+$1,935	52	1
Step 3	$61,934	$29.68	+$1,935	52	2
Step 4	$63,869	$30.60	+$1,935	52	3
Step 5	$65,804	$31.53	+$1,935	104	5
Step 6	$67,739	$32.46	+$1,935	104	7
Step 7	$69,674	$33.38	+$1,935	104	9
Step 8	$71,609	$34.31	+$1,935	156	12
Step 9	$73,544	$35.24	+$1,935	156	15
Step 10	$75,479	$36.17	+$1,935	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $58,064 to $75,479 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-10

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-10	13,738 employees, 1.1% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-10 or higher	69.5% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$79,295, the median of the 10,390 full-time GS-10 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 76.0% of the grade’s 13,674 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	11%
At step 10	12%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	22%
Law enforcement officers	GL-10 step 1 is $59,999, 3.3% more than GS-10 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale)

GS-10 is the fourth-least common of the fifteen grades, with 13,738 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Veterans Claims Examining (0996), Diagnostic Radiologic Technologist (0647) and Nurse (0610), and the Department of Veterans Affairs employs the most of them, 8,640.

Only at step 1 is a GS-10 paid time and a half for overtime: that is the GS-10 step 1 rate itself. From step 2 the hourly rate is above that of GS-10 step 1, and for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers) the overtime hour is capped at one and a half times the GS-10 step 1 rate: the premium falls from 45.2 percent at step 2 to 15.4 percent at step 10 in Rest of U.S.

Is GS-10 a high grade?

Below the middle of the schedule, with 69.5% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 at GS-10 or higher, yet the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $79,295, is 1.6 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-10 make an hour?

$27.82 to $36.17 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and with Rest of U.S. locality pay even step 1, $32.57, is above the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-10 equivalent to?

Military grade O-3 — a Captain in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Lieutenant in the Navy and Coast Guard — is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-10 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-11.

Source: DoD Instruction 1000.01 (Change 2, June 4, 2018), Tables 1 and 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	O-3
Geneva Conventions category	III, company grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	Captain
Navy, Coast Guard	Lieutenant
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-11

GS-10 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-10 step 5 in all 58 areas: $77,030 in Rest of U.S. to $96,298 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$19,268** 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 $80,011 buys what $92,013 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	$96,298	115.6	$83,293
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$90,777	112.6	$80,646
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$89,803	113.6	$79,076
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$88,835	98.6	$90,070
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$88,138	108.9	$80,947
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$87,993	111.9	$78,645
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$87,243	108.3	$80,582
8	State of Alaska	$87,098	102.4	$85,091
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$86,914	102.7	$84,591
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$86,578	111.1	$77,905
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$86,111	103.6	$83,123
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$85,887	105.8	$81,192
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$85,387	106.7	$80,048
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$84,966	100.3	$84,714
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$84,881	102.6	$82,767
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$83,979	104.8	$80,116
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$83,742	103.1	$81,232
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$82,999	105.4	$78,731
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$82,038	114.2	$71,865
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$81,459	100.1	$81,412
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$80,577	103.3	$77,991
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$80,557	96.9	$83,102
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$80,551	95.8	$84,044
24	Richmond, VA	$80,465	97.9	$82,226
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$80,439	98.2	$81,949
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$80,432	93.9	$85,636
27	State of Hawaii	$80,419	110.0	$73,141
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$80,380	95.5	$84,195
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$80,235	95.4	$84,130
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$80,222	93.1	$86,193
31	Laredo, TX	$80,011	87.0	$92,013
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$79,899	92.7	$86,197
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$79,643	94.7	$84,126
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$79,471	99.6	$79,817
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$79,195	98.1	$80,757
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$79,064	100.7	$78,509
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$78,985	95.1	$83,065
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$78,748	97.3	$80,893
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$78,682	100.2	$78,513
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$78,603	100.9	$77,864
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$78,590	98.7	$79,665
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$78,491	96.9	$81,005
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$78,287	92.5	$84,595
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$78,261	89.1	$87,856
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$78,175	97.9	$79,818
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$78,162	94.7	$82,522
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$77,866	95.5	$81,496
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$77,807	91.6	$84,901
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$77,800	91.9	$84,647
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$77,747	95.7	$81,244
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$77,655	91.7	$84,683
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$77,603	100.0	$77,599
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$77,570	97.0	$79,940
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$77,432	100.3	$77,165
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$77,418	102.2	$75,783
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$77,405	92.7	$83,527
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$77,333	101.0	$76,557
58	Rest of U.S.	$77,030	—	—

What a GS-10 earns where you are

GS-10, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$88,138

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-10 to GS-11

The step a GS-10 lands on at GS-11 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-10	Lands on GS-11	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$5,731
Step 2	Step 2	+$5,923
Step 3	Step 2	+$3,988
Step 4	Step 3	+$4,180
Step 5	Step 4	+$4,372
Step 6	Step 5	+$4,564
Step 7	Step 6	+$4,756
Step 8	Step 7	+$4,948
Step 9	Step 8	+$5,140
Step 10	Step 9	+$5,332

A promotion to GS-11 needs 52 weeks at GS-10 in a line of work that moves one grade at a time (5 CFR 300.604).