GS-3 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $27,708 Base, Up to $52,718

GS-3 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	$27,708	$13.28	—	—	0
Step 2	$28,632	$13.72	+$924	52	1
Step 3	$29,556	$14.16	+$924	52	2
Step 4	$30,480	$14.60	+$924	52	3
Step 5	$31,404	$15.05	+$924	104	5
Step 6	$32,328	$15.49	+$924	104	7
Step 7	$33,252	$15.93	+$924	104	9
Step 8	$34,176	$16.38	+$924	156	12
Step 9	$35,100	$16.82	+$924	156	15
Step 10	$36,024	$17.26	+$924	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $27,708 to $36,024 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-3

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-3	3,645 employees, 0.28% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-3 or higher	99.96% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$39,884, the median of the 1,105 full-time GS-3 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 70.6% of the grade’s 1,565 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	0%
At step 10	14%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	4%
Law enforcement officers	GL-3 step 1 is $33,252, 20.0% more than GS-3 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale)

GS-3 is the third-least common of the fifteen grades, with 3,645 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Sales Store Clerical (2091), Agricultural Commodity Aid (1981) and Plant Protection Technician (0421), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 1,446.

Every step of GS-3 is paid less an hour than GS-10 step 1, so an overtime hour is paid at time and a half at every step of the grade, in all 58 areas.

Is GS-3 a high grade?

No, 99.96% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are at GS-3 or higher, and the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $39,884, is $11,096 below the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-3 make an hour?

$13.28 to $17.26 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and only with more locality pay than Rest of U.S. does it pass the national median of $24.51 an hour, at step 10 in 1 of the 58 areas.

What military rank is GS-3 equivalent to?

Enlisted grades E-1 to E-3, category I, are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-3 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-1 and GS-2.

Source: DoD Instruction 1000.01 (Change 2, June 4, 2018), Table 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	E-1 to E-3
Geneva Conventions category	I, enlisted
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-1, GS-2

GS-3 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-3 step 5 in all 58 areas: $36,762 in Rest of U.S. to $45,957 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$9,195** 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 $38,184 buys what $43,912 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	$45,957	115.6	$39,751
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$43,322	112.6	$38,487
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$42,857	113.6	$37,738
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$42,395	98.6	$42,984
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$42,063	108.9	$38,631
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$41,993	111.9	$37,532
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$41,635	108.3	$38,456
8	State of Alaska	$41,566	102.4	$40,608
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$41,478	102.7	$40,369
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$41,318	111.1	$37,179
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$41,095	103.6	$39,669
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$40,989	105.8	$38,749
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$40,750	106.7	$38,202
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$40,549	100.3	$40,429
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$40,508	102.6	$39,499
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$40,078	104.8	$38,234
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$39,965	103.1	$38,767
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$39,610	105.4	$37,573
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$39,151	114.2	$34,296
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$38,875	100.1	$38,852
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$38,454	103.3	$37,220
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$38,445	96.9	$39,660
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$38,442	95.8	$40,109
24	Richmond, VA	$38,401	97.9	$39,242
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$38,388	98.2	$39,109
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$38,385	93.9	$40,869
27	State of Hawaii	$38,379	110.0	$34,906
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$38,360	95.5	$40,181
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$38,291	95.4	$40,150
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$38,285	93.1	$41,135
31	Laredo, TX	$38,184	87.0	$43,912
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$38,131	92.7	$41,136
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$38,008	94.7	$40,147
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$37,927	99.6	$38,092
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$37,795	98.1	$38,540
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$37,732	100.7	$37,467
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$37,694	95.1	$39,641
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$37,581	97.3	$38,605
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$37,550	100.2	$37,469
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$37,512	100.9	$37,159
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$37,506	98.7	$38,019
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$37,459	96.9	$38,659
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$37,361	92.5	$40,372
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$37,349	89.1	$41,928
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$37,308	97.9	$38,092
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$37,302	94.7	$39,383
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$37,160	95.5	$38,892
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$37,132	91.6	$40,518
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$37,129	91.9	$40,397
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$37,104	95.7	$38,773
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$37,060	91.7	$40,414
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$37,035	100.0	$37,033
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$37,019	97.0	$38,150
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$36,953	100.3	$36,826
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$36,947	102.2	$36,167
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$36,941	92.7	$39,863
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$36,906	101.0	$36,536
58	Rest of U.S.	$36,762	—	—

What a GS-3 earns where you are

GS-3, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$42,063

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-3 to GS-4

The step a GS-3 lands on at GS-4 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-3	Lands on GS-4	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$3,395
Step 2	Step 1	+$2,471
Step 3	Step 2	+$2,584
Step 4	Step 3	+$2,697
Step 5	Step 4	+$2,810
Step 6	Step 4	+$1,886
Step 7	Step 5	+$1,999
Step 8	Step 6	+$2,112
Step 9	Step 7	+$2,225
Step 10	Step 8	+$2,338

No time-in-grade minimum applies to a promotion to GS-4: up to GS-5 there is none, as long as the move is no more than two grades above the lowest grade held in the past 52 weeks (5 CFR 300.604).