GS-11 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $63,795 Base, Up to $121,371

GS-11 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	$63,795	$30.57	—	—	0
Step 2	$65,922	$31.59	+$2,127	52	1
Step 3	$68,049	$32.61	+$2,127	52	2
Step 4	$70,176	$33.63	+$2,127	52	3
Step 5	$72,303	$34.64	+$2,127	104	5
Step 6	$74,430	$35.66	+$2,127	104	7
Step 7	$76,557	$36.68	+$2,127	104	9
Step 8	$78,684	$37.70	+$2,127	156	12
Step 9	$80,811	$38.72	+$2,127	156	15
Step 10	$82,938	$39.74	+$2,127	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $63,795 to $82,938 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-11

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-11	182,099 employees, 14.2% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-11 or higher	68.4% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$90,520, the median of the 93,294 full-time GS-11 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 52.2% of the grade’s 178,637 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	7%
At step 10	11%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	47%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-11: it stops at grade 10, so officers are paid from the table above unless OPM’s 2026 special rates cover the position (law enforcement pay)

GS-11 is the third-most common of the fifteen grades, with 182,099 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Miscellaneous Administration and Program (0301), Social Insurance Administration (0105) and Information Technology Management (2210), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 68,439.

11% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the third-lowest share of any grade.

Every step of GS-11 is paid more an hour than GS-10 step 1, so 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 is 36.6 percent at step 1 and 5.0 percent at step 10 in Rest of U.S.

Is GS-11 a high grade?

Below the middle of the schedule, with 68.4% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 at GS-11 or higher, yet the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $90,520, is 1.8 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-11 make an hour?

$30.57 to $39.74 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and with Rest of U.S. locality pay even step 1, $35.78, is above the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-11 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-11 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-10.

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-10

Who qualifies at GS-11

Under OPM’s qualification standard for administrative and management positions, GS-11 takes a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to one, or an LL.M. if related; or, instead of education, 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-9. Equivalent combinations of education and experience also qualify.

Each occupation has its own standard, and the qualifications section of a vacancy announcement is what decides. Source: OPM, General Schedule Qualification Standards, administrative and management positions.

GS-11 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-11 step 5 in all 58 areas: $84,638 in Rest of U.S. to $105,808 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$21,170** 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 $87,913 buys what $101,101 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	$105,808	115.6	$91,519
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$99,742	112.6	$88,610
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$98,672	113.6	$86,885
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$97,609	98.6	$98,966
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$96,843	108.9	$88,941
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$96,684	111.9	$86,412
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$95,859	108.3	$88,540
8	State of Alaska	$95,700	102.4	$93,494
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$95,498	102.7	$92,946
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$95,129	111.1	$85,599
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$94,616	103.6	$91,333
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$94,370	105.8	$89,212
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$93,820	106.7	$87,954
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$93,358	100.3	$93,081
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$93,264	102.6	$90,941
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$92,273	104.8	$88,028
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$92,013	103.1	$89,255
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$91,196	105.4	$86,506
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$90,140	114.2	$78,963
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$89,504	100.1	$89,452
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$88,535	103.3	$85,693
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$88,513	96.9	$91,310
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$88,506	95.8	$92,344
24	Richmond, VA	$88,412	97.9	$90,347
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$88,383	98.2	$90,042
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$88,376	93.9	$94,094
27	State of Hawaii	$88,361	110.0	$80,364
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$88,318	95.5	$92,510
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$88,159	95.4	$92,439
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$88,145	93.1	$94,706
31	Laredo, TX	$87,913	87.0	$101,101
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$87,790	92.7	$94,709
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$87,508	94.7	$92,434
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$87,320	99.6	$87,701
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$87,017	98.1	$88,733
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$86,872	100.7	$86,262
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$86,785	95.1	$91,268
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$86,525	97.3	$88,882
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$86,453	100.2	$86,268
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$86,366	100.9	$85,554
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$86,351	98.7	$87,533
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$86,243	96.9	$89,006
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$86,019	92.5	$92,950
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$85,990	89.1	$96,532
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$85,896	97.9	$87,702
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$85,882	94.7	$90,673
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$85,556	95.5	$89,544
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$85,491	91.6	$93,286
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$85,484	91.9	$93,007
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$85,426	95.7	$89,268
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$85,325	91.7	$93,047
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$85,267	100.0	$85,263
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$85,231	97.0	$87,835
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$85,079	100.3	$84,786
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$85,064	102.2	$83,267
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$85,050	92.7	$91,776
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$84,970	101.0	$84,117
58	Rest of U.S.	$84,638	—	—

What a GS-11 earns where you are

GS-11, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$96,843

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-11 to GS-12

The step a GS-11 lands on at GS-12 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-11	Lands on GS-12	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$12,668
Step 2	Step 1	+$10,541
Step 3	Step 1	+$8,414
Step 4	Step 1	+$6,287
Step 5	Step 2	+$6,709
Step 6	Step 2	+$4,582
Step 7	Step 3	+$5,004
Step 8	Step 4	+$5,426
Step 9	Step 5	+$5,848
Step 10	Step 6	+$6,270

A promotion to GS-12 needs 52 weeks at GS-11: from GS-12 up there is no two-grade route (5 CFR 300.604).