GS-9 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $52,727 Base, Up to $100,315

GS-9 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	$52,727	$25.26	—	—	0
Step 2	$54,485	$26.11	+$1,758	52	1
Step 3	$56,243	$26.95	+$1,758	52	2
Step 4	$58,001	$27.79	+$1,758	52	3
Step 5	$59,759	$28.63	+$1,758	104	5
Step 6	$61,517	$29.48	+$1,758	104	7
Step 7	$63,275	$30.32	+$1,758	104	9
Step 8	$65,033	$31.16	+$1,758	156	12
Step 9	$66,791	$32.00	+$1,758	156	15
Step 10	$68,549	$32.85	+$1,758	156	18

These base rates stay the same under the 2027 proposal, $52,727 to $68,549 (2027 pay raise).

Who is on GS-9

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-9	106,568 employees, 8.3% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-9 or higher	77.8% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$73,600, the median of the 55,239 full-time GS-9 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 53.0% of the grade’s 104,142 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	5%
At step 10	11%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	23%
Law enforcement officers	GL-9 step 1 is $54,485, 3.3% more than GS-9 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale)

GS-9 is the fifth-most common of the fifteen grades, with 106,568 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Miscellaneous Administration and Program (0301), General Legal and Kindred Administration (0901) and Consumer Safety Inspection (1862), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 40,714.

Up to step 4 a GS-9 is paid time and a half for overtime. From step 5 the hourly rate is above that of GS-10 step 1, and for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers) the overtime hour is capped at one and a half times the GS-10 step 1 rate: the premium falls from 45.8 percent at step 5 to 27.1 percent at step 10 in Rest of U.S.

Is GS-9 a high grade?

Lower than most, with 77.8% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 at GS-9 or higher, but the median full-time pay OPM publishes for it, $73,600, is 1.4 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

What does a GS-9 make an hour?

$25.26 to $32.85 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and with Rest of U.S. locality pay even step 1, $29.57, is above the national median of $24.51 an hour.

What military rank is GS-9 equivalent to?

Military grade O-2 — a First Lieutenant in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Navy and Coast Guard — and warrant officer grades W-3 and W-4 are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-9 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-8.

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-2
Warrant officer grades	W-3 and W-4
Geneva Conventions category	III, company grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	First Lieutenant
Navy, Coast Guard	Lieutenant Junior Grade
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-8

Who qualifies at GS-9

Under OPM’s qualification standard for administrative and management positions, GS-9 takes a master’s or equivalent graduate degree, 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to one, or an LL.B. or J.D. if related; or, instead of education, 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-7. Equivalent combinations of education and experience also qualify.

Each occupation has its own standard, and the qualifications section of a vacancy announcement is what decides. Source: OPM, General Schedule Qualification Standards, administrative and management positions.

GS-9 step 5 in every locality pay area

GS-9 step 5 in all 58 areas: $69,954 in Rest of U.S. to $87,451 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$17,497** 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 $72,661 buys what $83,561 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	$87,451	115.6	$75,641
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$82,438	112.6	$73,237
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$81,553	113.6	$71,811
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$80,675	98.6	$81,796
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$80,041	108.9	$73,510
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$79,910	111.9	$71,420
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$79,228	108.3	$73,179
8	State of Alaska	$79,097	102.4	$77,274
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$78,930	102.7	$76,821
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$78,625	111.1	$70,749
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$78,201	103.6	$75,487
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$77,997	105.8	$73,734
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$77,543	106.7	$72,694
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$77,161	100.3	$76,932
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$77,083	102.6	$75,163
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$76,264	104.8	$72,756
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$76,049	103.1	$73,770
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$75,374	105.4	$71,498
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$74,502	114.2	$65,264
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$73,976	100.1	$73,933
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$73,175	103.3	$70,826
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$73,157	96.9	$75,469
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$73,151	95.8	$76,323
24	Richmond, VA	$73,073	97.9	$74,672
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$73,049	98.2	$74,421
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$73,043	93.9	$77,769
27	State of Hawaii	$73,031	110.0	$66,421
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$72,996	95.5	$76,460
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$72,864	95.4	$76,401
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$72,852	93.1	$78,275
31	Laredo, TX	$72,661	87.0	$83,561
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$72,559	92.7	$78,278
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$72,326	94.7	$76,397
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$72,171	99.6	$72,486
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$71,920	98.1	$73,338
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$71,800	100.7	$71,296
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$71,729	95.1	$75,434
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$71,514	97.3	$73,462
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$71,454	100.2	$71,301
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$71,382	100.9	$70,711
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$71,370	98.7	$72,347
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$71,281	96.9	$73,564
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$71,095	92.5	$76,824
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$71,071	89.1	$79,784
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$70,994	97.9	$72,486
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$70,982	94.7	$74,942
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$70,713	95.5	$74,009
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$70,659	91.6	$77,102
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$70,653	91.9	$76,871
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$70,605	95.7	$73,781
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$70,522	91.7	$76,904
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$70,474	100.0	$70,470
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$70,444	97.0	$72,596
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$70,318	100.3	$70,076
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$70,306	102.2	$68,821
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$70,295	92.7	$75,854
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$70,229	101.0	$69,524
58	Rest of U.S.	$69,954	—	—

What a GS-9 earns where you are

GS-9, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$80,041

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-9 to GS-10

The step a GS-9 lands on at GS-10 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-9	Lands on GS-10	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$5,337
Step 2	Step 1	+$3,579
Step 3	Step 2	+$3,756
Step 4	Step 3	+$3,933
Step 5	Step 4	+$4,110
Step 6	Step 5	+$4,287
Step 7	Step 6	+$4,464
Step 8	Step 7	+$4,641
Step 9	Step 8	+$4,818
Step 10	Step 9	+$4,995

A promotion to GS-10 needs 52 weeks at GS-9 in a line of work that moves one grade at a time (5 CFR 300.604). Where the work moves two grades at a time, as GS-5, 7, 9 and 11 professional ladders do, 52 weeks at GS-9 opens GS-11 directly: by the same rule a GS-9 step 5 lands on GS-11 step 1, $4,036 more in base pay.