GS-15 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $126,384 Base, Up to $197,200

GS-15 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	$126,384	$60.56	—	—	0
Step 2	$130,597	$62.58	+$4,213	52	1
Step 3	$134,810	$64.60	+$4,213	52	2
Step 4	$139,023	$66.61	+$4,213	52	3
Step 5	$143,236	$68.63	+$4,213	104	5
Step 6	$147,449	$70.65	+$4,213	104	7
Step 7	$151,662	$72.67	+$4,213	104	9
Step 8	$155,875	$74.69	+$4,213	156	12
Step 9	$160,088	$76.71	+$4,213	156	15
Step 10	$164,301	$78.73	+$4,213	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $126,384 to $164,301 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-15

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-15	52,288 employees, 4.1% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-15 or higher	4.1% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$197,200, the statutory ceiling itself; the median of the 38,766 full-time GS-15 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 74.9% of the grade’s 51,780 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	63%
At step 10	19%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	100%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-15: 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-15 is the seventh-least common of the fifteen grades, with 52,288 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are General Attorney (0905), Miscellaneous Administration and Program (0301) and Information Technology Management (2210), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 8,505.

63% of them are supervisors or managers, the highest share of any grade.

19% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the highest share of any grade.

At every step of GS-15 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-15 is paid more than the cap from step 1.

The $197,200 statutory ceiling cuts 95 GS-15 rates in 37 of the 58 areas, from step 3 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, and holds step 10 in 37 of them: there the last step increases add nothing.

Is GS-15 a high grade?

Yes, GS-15 is the top grade of the schedule, held by 52,288 employees or 4.1% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026, and the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it is the statutory ceiling itself, $197,200, 3.9 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-15 make an hour?

$60.56 to $78.73 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and even step 1 with Rest of U.S. locality pay, $70.89, is 2.9 times the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-15 equivalent to?

Military grade O-6 — a Colonel in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Captain in the Navy and Coast Guard — is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-15 on Geneva Conventions identification cards.

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-6
Geneva Conventions category	IV, field grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	Colonel
Navy, Coast Guard	Captain
Other GS grades in the same row	none

GS-15 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-15 step 5 in all 58 areas: $167,672 in Rest of U.S. to $197,200 in New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA, **$29,528** apart for identical work. In 2 of them step 5 is already held to the $197,200 ceiling. 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 $174,161 buys what $200,286 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	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$197,200	112.6	$175,191
2	San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA	$197,200	115.6	$170,569
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$195,474	113.6	$172,124
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$193,369	98.6	$196,057
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$191,850	108.9	$176,197
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$191,535	111.9	$171,186
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$189,902	108.3	$175,403
8	State of Alaska	$189,587	102.4	$185,218
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$189,186	102.7	$184,130
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$188,456	111.1	$169,577
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$187,439	103.6	$180,934
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$186,952	105.8	$176,733
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$185,863	106.7	$174,241
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$184,946	100.3	$184,396
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$184,760	102.6	$180,159
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$182,798	104.8	$174,389
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$182,282	103.1	$176,818
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$180,664	105.4	$171,374
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$178,572	114.2	$156,429
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$177,312	100.1	$177,209
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$175,392	103.3	$169,763
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$175,350	96.9	$180,891
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$175,335	95.8	$182,938
24	Richmond, VA	$175,149	97.9	$178,983
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$175,092	98.2	$178,380
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$175,077	93.9	$186,405
27	State of Hawaii	$175,049	110.0	$159,206
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$174,963	95.5	$183,267
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$174,648	95.4	$183,127
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$174,619	93.1	$187,617
31	Laredo, TX	$174,161	87.0	$200,286
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$173,917	92.7	$187,625
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$173,359	94.7	$183,117
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$172,986	99.6	$173,740
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$172,385	98.1	$175,785
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$172,098	100.7	$170,890
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$171,926	95.1	$180,807
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$171,411	97.3	$176,081
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$171,267	100.2	$170,900
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$171,095	100.9	$169,487
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$171,067	98.7	$173,408
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$170,852	96.9	$176,325
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$170,408	92.5	$184,139
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$170,351	89.1	$191,236
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$170,164	97.9	$173,741
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$170,136	94.7	$179,628
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$169,491	95.5	$177,392
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$169,362	91.6	$184,804
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$169,348	91.9	$184,252
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$169,233	95.7	$176,844
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$169,033	91.7	$184,331
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$168,918	100.0	$168,910
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$168,847	97.0	$174,006
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$168,546	100.3	$167,965
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$168,517	102.2	$164,957
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$168,489	92.7	$181,814
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$168,331	101.0	$166,641
58	Rest of U.S.	$167,672	—	—

What a GS-15 earns where you are

GS-15, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$191,850

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Above GS-15

GS-15 is the top of the General Schedule: there is no higher grade to be promoted to on it, and the Senior Executive Service above it is paid from a separate system. What each of the fifteen grades means is on the list of GS grades.