GS-13 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $90,925 Base, Up to $172,980

GS-13 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	$90,925	$43.57	—	—	0
Step 2	$93,956	$45.02	+$3,031	52	1
Step 3	$96,987	$46.47	+$3,031	52	2
Step 4	$100,018	$47.92	+$3,031	52	3
Step 5	$103,049	$49.38	+$3,031	104	5
Step 6	$106,080	$50.83	+$3,031	104	7
Step 7	$109,111	$52.28	+$3,031	104	9
Step 8	$112,142	$53.73	+$3,031	156	12
Step 9	$115,173	$55.19	+$3,031	156	15
Step 10	$118,204	$56.64	+$3,031	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $90,925 to $118,204 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-13

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-13	240,375 employees, 18.8% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-13 or higher	32.5% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$137,071, the median of the 120,475 full-time GS-13 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 50.7% of the grade’s 237,479 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	21%
At step 10	14%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	90%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-13: 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-13 is the second-most common of the fifteen grades, with 240,375 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Criminal Investigation (1811), Management and Program Analysis (0343) and Information Technology Management (2210), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 64,955.

21% of them are supervisors or managers, the third-highest share of any grade.

14% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the third-highest share of any grade.

At every step of GS-13 an overtime hour pays exactly the ordinary hourly rate for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers): overtime above the hourly rate of GS-10 step 1 is capped at one and a half times that rate, and a GS-13 is paid more than the cap from step 1.

Is GS-13 a high grade?

Yes, only 32.5% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are at GS-13 or higher, and the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $137,071, is 2.7 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-13 make an hour?

$43.57 to $56.64 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and even step 1 with Rest of U.S. locality pay, $51.00, is 2.1 times the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-13 equivalent to?

Military grade O-5 — a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Commander in the Navy and Coast Guard — is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-13 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-14.

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-5
Geneva Conventions category	IV, field grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	Lieutenant Colonel
Navy, Coast Guard	Commander
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-14

GS-13 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-13 step 5 in all 58 areas: $120,629 in Rest of U.S. to $150,802 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$30,173** 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 $125,297 buys what $144,092 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	$150,802	115.6	$130,437
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$142,156	112.6	$126,290
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$140,631	113.6	$123,832
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$139,116	98.6	$141,050
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$138,024	108.9	$126,762
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$137,797	111.9	$123,157
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$136,622	108.3	$126,191
8	State of Alaska	$136,396	102.4	$133,253
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$136,107	102.7	$132,469
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$135,582	111.1	$122,000
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$134,850	103.6	$130,170
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$134,500	105.8	$127,148
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$133,716	106.7	$125,355
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$133,057	100.3	$132,662
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$132,923	102.6	$129,613
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$131,511	104.8	$125,461
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$131,140	103.1	$127,209
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$129,976	105.4	$123,292
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$128,471	114.2	$112,541
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$127,564	100.1	$127,490
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$126,184	103.3	$122,134
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$126,153	96.9	$130,139
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$126,142	95.8	$131,612
24	Richmond, VA	$126,008	97.9	$128,766
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$125,967	98.2	$128,332
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$125,957	93.9	$134,107
27	State of Hawaii	$125,936	110.0	$114,538
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$125,874	95.5	$131,848
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$125,648	95.4	$131,748
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$125,627	93.1	$134,978
31	Laredo, TX	$125,297	87.0	$144,092
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$125,122	92.7	$134,984
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$124,720	94.7	$131,740
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$124,452	99.6	$124,994
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$124,019	98.1	$126,465
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$123,813	100.7	$122,944
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$123,690	95.1	$130,080
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$123,319	97.3	$126,679
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$123,216	100.2	$122,952
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$123,092	100.9	$121,935
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$123,071	98.7	$124,755
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$122,917	96.9	$126,855
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$122,597	92.5	$132,476
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$122,556	89.1	$137,581
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$122,422	97.9	$124,996
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$122,402	94.7	$129,231
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$121,938	95.5	$127,622
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$121,845	91.6	$132,955
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$121,835	91.9	$132,558
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$121,752	95.7	$127,228
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$121,608	91.7	$132,614
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$121,526	100.0	$121,520
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$121,474	97.0	$125,186
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$121,258	100.3	$120,840
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$121,237	102.2	$118,676
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$121,217	92.7	$130,804
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$121,103	101.0	$119,887
58	Rest of U.S.	$120,629	—	—

What a GS-13 earns where you are

GS-13, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$138,024

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-13 to GS-14

The step a GS-13 lands on at GS-14 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-13	Lands on GS-14	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$16,521
Step 2	Step 1	+$13,490
Step 3	Step 1	+$10,459
Step 4	Step 1	+$7,428
Step 5	Step 2	+$7,979
Step 6	Step 3	+$8,530
Step 7	Step 4	+$9,081
Step 8	Step 5	+$9,632
Step 9	Step 5	+$6,601
Step 10	Step 6	+$7,152

A promotion to GS-14 needs 52 weeks at GS-13: from GS-12 up there is no two-grade route (5 CFR 300.604).