GS-6 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $38,791 Base, Up to $73,796

GS-6 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	$38,791	$18.59	—	—	0
Step 2	$40,084	$19.21	+$1,293	52	1
Step 3	$41,377	$19.83	+$1,293	52	2
Step 4	$42,670	$20.45	+$1,293	52	3
Step 5	$43,963	$21.07	+$1,293	104	5
Step 6	$45,256	$21.68	+$1,293	104	7
Step 7	$46,549	$22.30	+$1,293	104	9
Step 8	$47,842	$22.92	+$1,293	156	12
Step 9	$49,135	$23.54	+$1,293	156	15
Step 10	$50,428	$24.16	+$1,293	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $38,791 to $50,428 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-6

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-6	84,291 employees, 6.6% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-6 or higher	94.4% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$58,266, the median of the 62,727 full-time GS-6 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 77.4% of the grade’s 81,069 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	0%
At step 10	12%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	8%
Law enforcement officers	GL-6 step 1 is $45,256, 16.7% more than GS-6 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale)

GS-6 is the sixth-most common of the fifteen grades, with 84,291 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Medical Support Assistance (0679), Practical Nurse (0620) and Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant (0303), and the Department of Veterans Affairs employs the most of them, 54,927.

Every step of GS-6 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-6 a high grade?

Lower than most, with 94.4% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 at GS-6 or higher, but the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $58,266, is 1.1 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-6 make an hour?

$18.59 to $24.16 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and in Rest of U.S. it passes the national median of $24.51 an hour at step 5, $24.66.

What military rank is GS-6 equivalent to?

Enlisted grades E-7 to E-9, non-commissioned officers in category II, are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-6 on Geneva Conventions identification cards.

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-7 to E-9
Geneva Conventions category	II, non-commissioned officer
Other GS grades in the same row	none

GS-6 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-6 step 5 in all 58 areas: $51,463 in Rest of U.S. to $64,335 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$12,872** 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 $53,455 buys what $61,474 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	$64,335	115.6	$55,647
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$60,647	112.6	$53,878
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$59,996	113.6	$52,829
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$59,350	98.6	$60,175
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$58,884	108.9	$54,080
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$58,787	111.9	$52,541
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$58,286	108.3	$53,836
8	State of Alaska	$58,189	102.4	$56,848
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$58,066	102.7	$56,514
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$57,842	111.1	$52,048
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$57,530	103.6	$55,534
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$57,381	105.8	$54,245
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$57,046	106.7	$53,479
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$56,765	100.3	$56,596
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$56,708	102.6	$55,296
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$56,106	104.8	$53,525
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$55,947	103.1	$54,270
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$55,451	105.4	$52,600
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$54,809	114.2	$48,013
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$54,422	100.1	$54,390
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$53,833	103.3	$52,105
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$53,820	96.9	$55,521
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$53,815	95.8	$56,149
24	Richmond, VA	$53,758	97.9	$54,935
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$53,740	98.2	$54,749
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$53,736	93.9	$57,213
27	State of Hawaii	$53,727	110.0	$48,864
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$53,701	95.5	$56,250
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$53,604	95.4	$56,206
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$53,595	93.1	$57,584
31	Laredo, TX	$53,455	87.0	$61,474
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$53,380	92.7	$57,587
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$53,208	94.7	$56,203
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$53,094	99.6	$53,325
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$52,909	98.1	$53,952
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$52,822	100.7	$52,451
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$52,769	95.1	$55,495
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$52,611	97.3	$54,044
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$52,567	100.2	$52,454
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$52,514	100.9	$52,020
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$52,505	98.7	$53,224
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$52,439	96.9	$54,119
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$52,303	92.5	$56,518
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$52,285	89.1	$58,695
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$52,228	97.9	$53,326
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$52,219	94.7	$55,132
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$52,021	95.5	$54,446
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$51,982	91.6	$56,722
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$51,977	91.9	$56,551
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$51,942	95.7	$54,278
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$51,881	91.7	$56,576
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$51,846	100.0	$51,843
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$51,824	97.0	$53,408
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$51,731	100.3	$51,553
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$51,722	102.2	$50,629
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$51,714	92.7	$55,804
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$51,665	101.0	$51,146
58	Rest of U.S.	$51,463	—	—

What a GS-6 earns where you are

GS-6, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$58,884

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-6 to GS-7

The step a GS-6 lands on at GS-7 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-6	Lands on GS-7	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$4,315
Step 2	Step 1	+$3,022
Step 3	Step 2	+$3,166
Step 4	Step 3	+$3,310
Step 5	Step 4	+$3,454
Step 6	Step 5	+$3,598
Step 7	Step 6	+$3,742
Step 8	Step 7	+$3,886
Step 9	Step 7	+$2,593
Step 10	Step 8	+$2,737

A promotion to GS-7 needs 52 weeks at GS-6 in a line of work that moves one grade at a time (5 CFR 300.604).