- GS pay scale 2026
- Where GS pay goes furthest
58 locality pay areasPage last changed 2026-10-22
Where a GS salary goes furthest in 2026
Of the ten locality pay areas with the biggest GS-12 step 5 paycheck in 2026, only 3 are still in the top ten once the salary is divided by local prices: San Jose, CA, Houston, TX and Alaska. Of the 57 areas with a price index, the salary goes furthest in Laredo, TX, $21,448 less on paper than in San Jose, CA, and 2.2% ahead of Houston, TX, the next.
The ranking turns over
Sorted by the paycheck and sorted by what it buys, the top ten share 3 areas.
| Area | On paper | Price level | What it buys | Rank after prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | $126,817 | 110.4 | $114,847 | #4 |
| New York, NY | $119,546 | 112.6 | $106,204 | #36 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $118,264 | 113.6 | $104,137 | #44 |
| Houston, TX | $116,990 | 98.6 | $118,616 | #2 |
| Washington, DC | $116,071 | 108.9 | $106,601 | #33 |
| San Diego, CA | $115,880 | 111.9 | $103,569 | #46 |
| Boston, MA | $114,893 | 108.3 | $106,121 | #37 |
| Alaska | $114,702 | 102.4 | $112,059 | #8 |
| Hartford, CT | $114,459 | 102.7 | $111,400 | #14 |
| Seattle, WA | $114,017 | 111.1 | $102,595 | #50 |
| Area | What it buys | Price level | On paper | Rank on paper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laredo, TX | $121,175 | 87.0 | $105,369 | #31 |
| Houston, TX | $118,616 | 98.6 | $116,990 | #4 |
| Davenport, IA | $115,700 | 89.1 | $103,064 | #44 |
| San Jose, CA | $114,847 | 110.4 | $126,817 | #1 |
| Dayton, OH | $113,514 | 92.7 | $105,221 | #32 |
| Huntsville, AL | $113,510 | 93.1 | $105,646 | #30 |
| Cleveland, OH | $112,776 | 93.9 | $105,923 | #26 |
| Alaska | $112,059 | 102.4 | $114,702 | #8 |
| Birmingham, AL | $111,809 | 91.6 | $102,466 | #48 |
| Detroit, MI | $111,562 | 100.3 | $111,894 | #14 |
Pay follows prices, but not one for one
Across the 57 areas with a price index, the locality percentage and the BEA price level move together, with a correlation of 0.71. A correlation of 1 would put every area on one straight line; it would still not mean one point of pay for each point of prices.
That is what the law asks for and no more. Locality pay is set from what non-federal employers in the area pay for comparable work (the labor-market rule), not from what living there costs. Where local wages are high for the local price level, a GS salary climbs the ranking once prices are counted; where prices outrun wages, it falls.
| Area | Rank on paper | Rank after prices | Price level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davenport, IA | #44 | #3 | 89.1 |
| Des Moines, IA | #51 | #11 | 91.7 |
| Birmingham, AL | #48 | #9 | 91.6 |
| Corpus Christi, TX | #56 | #19 | 92.7 |
| Omaha, NE | #49 | #12 | 91.9 |
| Los Angeles, CA | #3 | #44 | 113.6 |
| Seattle, WA | #10 | #50 | 111.1 |
| San Diego, CA | #6 | #46 | 111.9 |
| Miami, FL | #19 | #57 | 114.2 |
| New York, NY | #2 | #36 | 112.6 |
The gap between areas does not shrink
On paper, GS-12 step 5 runs from $101,842 in Reno, NV to $126,817 in San Jose, CA, $24,975 apart. After prices it runs from $94,641 in Miami, FL to $121,175 in Laredo, TX, $26,534 apart, wider than on paper.
Prices do not even the pay out; they reshuffle it. 29 of the 57 areas have a price level below the national average of 100, and there the salary buys more than its face value; in the other 28 it buys less.
What this comparison leaves out
The price index used here describes 2024, two years before the 2026 pay tables. BEA publishes price levels for metropolitan areas, and each locality pay area takes the one of its principal city’s metro area, the first city in OPM’s name for it; Alaska and Hawaii, whose areas are the whole state, take BEA’s price level for the state. The figures are gross pay: taxes, and housing beyond what the price level captures, are not in them (how the comparison is made).
The count of 3 in the top ten rests on small margins: Hartford, CT, #14 after prices with $111,400, is 0.15% behind Detroit, MI at #10; Alaska, #8 with $112,059, is 0.48% ahead of Des Moines, IA at #11. By this site’s rule that areas less than one percent apart are the same, the answer could be anywhere from 2 to 4.
Rest of U.S. is left out of that comparison: it is every county outside the named areas, spread across 43 of the 50 states, and has no price index of its own. In the 31 metro areas of the eight states with no named area at all (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming), where the Rest of U.S. rate is the only one, its $101,443 at GS-12 step 5 buys from $98,959 in Bozeman, MT to $121,348 in Monroe, LA, within one percent of Laredo, TX, which this site counts as the same.
Areas that take in more than one metro area
The names of 20 of the 57 areas take in more than one metropolitan area, and BEA prices them differently. The rankings above use the principal city’s metro area; with another metro area of the same name, 14 of the 22 comparisons below move the area more than five places. Boston, MA and Miami, FL move most, 30 places each: Boston, MA from #37 with Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH to #7 with Providence-Warwick, RI-MA; Miami, FL from #57 with Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL to #27 with Port St. Lucie, FL.
| Area | Principal city’s metro area | Price level | Rank | Other metro area | Price level | Rank with it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 110.4 | #4 | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 115.6 | #19 |
| Dayton, OH | Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek, OH | 92.7 | #5 | Springfield, OH | 90.5 | #3 |
| Huntsville, AL | Huntsville, AL | 93.1 | #6 | Decatur, AL | 87.2 | #2 |
| Cleveland, OH | Cleveland, OH | 93.9 | #7 | Akron, OH | 93.4 | #7 |
| Cleveland, OH | Cleveland, OH | 93.9 | #7 | Canton-Massillon, OH | 89.4 | #3 |
| Detroit, MI | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 100.3 | #10 | Ann Arbor, MI | 100.9 | #14 |
| Des Moines, IA | Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | 91.7 | #11 | Ames, IA | 88.8 | #4 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | Pittsburgh, PA | 94.7 | #17 | Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH | 89.0 | #3 |
| Milwaukee, WI | Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | 96.9 | #21 | Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI | 96.0 | #19 |
| Philadelphia, PA | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 102.6 | #23 | Reading, PA | 97.1 | #4 |
| Raleigh, NC | Raleigh-Cary, NC | 98.2 | #26 | Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 97.6 | #25 |
| Albuquerque, NM | Albuquerque, NM | 95.5 | #27 | Santa Fe, NM | 98.8 | #44 |
| Atlanta, GA | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 100.1 | #28 | Athens-Clarke County, GA | 93.3 | #4 |
| Indianapolis, IN | Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | 95.7 | #29 | Muncie, IN | 88.1 | #3 |
| Washington, DC | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 108.9 | #33 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 104.5 | #15 |
| Boston, MA | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 108.3 | #37 | Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | 101.8 | #7 |
| Boston, MA | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 108.3 | #37 | Worcester, MA | 102.5 | #8 |
| Harrisburg, PA | Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA | 98.7 | #43 | Lebanon, PA | 93.2 | #15 |
| Portland, OR | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 105.4 | #45 | Salem, OR | 103.6 | #39 |
| Spokane, WA | Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA | 100.3 | #53 | Coeur d'Alene, ID | 98.3 | #45 |
| Fresno, CA | Fresno, CA | 102.2 | #55 | Hanford-Corcoran, CA | 101.6 | #55 |
| Miami, FL | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 114.2 | #57 | Port St. Lucie, FL | 100.2 | #27 |
A weighted average of each area’s metro areas would be closer still, but it needs the federal list of which county belongs to which metro area; that list is not among this site’s files yet, so every area but Alaska and Hawaii takes its principal city’s metro area.
Sources
Salaries: OPM, 2026 General Schedule tables, all 58 areas, GS-12 step 5. Price levels: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024. What a salary buys = salary divided by price level over 100; the correlation is Pearson’s, between the 57 locality percentages and price levels. Every area’s figures are on the ranked table.
More from this site’s data
Ten years of locality pay; How far pay is from the 1990 law’s formula; Where the federal jobs are; and how every figure is made, on the methodology page.