GS-14 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $107,446 Base, Up to $197,200

GS-14 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	$107,446	$51.48	—	—	0
Step 2	$111,028	$53.20	+$3,582	52	1
Step 3	$114,610	$54.92	+$3,582	52	2
Step 4	$118,192	$56.63	+$3,582	52	3
Step 5	$121,774	$58.35	+$3,582	104	5
Step 6	$125,356	$60.07	+$3,582	104	7
Step 7	$128,938	$61.78	+$3,582	104	9
Step 8	$132,520	$63.50	+$3,582	156	12
Step 9	$136,102	$65.21	+$3,582	156	15
Step 10	$139,684	$66.93	+$3,582	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $107,446 to $139,684 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-14

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-14	122,910 employees, 9.6% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-14 or higher	13.7% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$165,469, the median of the 77,301 full-time GS-14 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 63.6% of the grade’s 121,499 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	40%
At step 10	15%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	98%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-14: 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-14 is the fourth-most common of the fifteen grades, with 122,910 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Management and Program Analysis (0343), Information Technology Management (2210) and General Attorney (0905), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 23,964.

40% of them are supervisors or managers, the second-highest share of any grade.

15% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the second-highest share of any grade.

At every step of GS-14 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-14 is paid more than the cap from step 1.

The $197,200 statutory ceiling reaches GS-14 in one area only: in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA it holds step 9 and every step above it, 2 of the ten.

Is GS-14 a high grade?

Yes, only 13.7% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are at GS-14 or higher, and the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $165,469, is 3.2 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-14 make an hour?

$51.48 to $66.93 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and even step 1 with Rest of U.S. locality pay, $60.27, is 2.5 times the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-14 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-14 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-13.

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-13

GS-14 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-14 step 5 in all 58 areas: $142,549 in Rest of U.S. to $178,204 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$35,655** 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 $148,065 buys what $170,276 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	$178,204	115.6	$154,138
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$167,987	112.6	$149,238
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$166,185	113.6	$146,333
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$164,395	98.6	$166,680
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$163,104	108.9	$149,796
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$162,836	111.9	$145,536
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$161,448	108.3	$149,122
8	State of Alaska	$161,180	102.4	$157,465
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$160,839	102.7	$156,540
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$160,218	111.1	$144,168
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$159,353	103.6	$153,823
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$158,939	105.8	$150,251
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$158,014	106.7	$148,133
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$157,235	100.3	$156,768
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$157,076	102.6	$153,164
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$155,408	104.8	$148,259
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$154,970	103.1	$150,325
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$153,594	105.4	$145,696
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$151,816	114.2	$132,991
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$150,744	100.1	$150,657
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$149,112	103.3	$144,326
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$149,076	96.9	$153,786
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$149,064	95.8	$155,528
24	Richmond, VA	$148,905	97.9	$152,164
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$148,857	98.2	$151,652
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$148,844	93.9	$158,474
27	State of Hawaii	$148,820	110.0	$135,351
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$148,747	95.5	$155,807
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$148,479	95.4	$155,687
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$148,455	93.1	$159,506
31	Laredo, TX	$148,065	87.0	$170,276
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$147,858	92.7	$159,512
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$147,383	94.7	$155,679
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$147,066	99.6	$147,707
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$146,555	98.1	$149,445
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$146,311	100.7	$145,284
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$146,165	95.1	$153,716
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$145,727	97.3	$149,697
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$145,605	100.2	$145,293
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$145,459	100.9	$144,092
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$145,435	98.7	$147,425
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$145,252	96.9	$149,905
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$144,875	92.5	$156,549
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$144,826	89.1	$162,582
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$144,668	97.9	$147,709
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$144,643	94.7	$152,712
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$144,095	95.5	$150,812
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$143,986	91.6	$157,114
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$143,973	91.9	$156,644
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$143,876	95.7	$150,347
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$143,705	91.7	$156,710
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$143,608	100.0	$143,601
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$143,547	97.0	$147,933
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$143,291	100.3	$142,797
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$143,267	102.2	$140,241
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$143,243	92.7	$154,572
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$143,109	101.0	$141,672
58	Rest of U.S.	$142,549	—	—

What a GS-14 earns where you are

GS-14, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$163,104

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-14 to GS-15

The step a GS-14 lands on at GS-15 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-14	Lands on GS-15	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$18,938
Step 2	Step 1	+$15,356
Step 3	Step 1	+$11,774
Step 4	Step 1	+$8,192
Step 5	Step 2	+$8,823
Step 6	Step 3	+$9,454
Step 7	Step 4	+$10,085
Step 8	Step 5	+$10,716
Step 9	Step 6	+$11,347
Step 10	Step 6	+$7,765

A promotion to GS-15 needs 52 weeks at GS-14: from GS-12 up there is no two-grade route (5 CFR 300.604).