What does a government job pay?
Two answers. Federal pay is published to the dollar — pick a grade and step below. Everything else is measured from open listings.
GS pay calculator · 2026
2026 annual basic pay
GS-13, Step 1 · Rest of U.S.
$106,437
$4,080.00 biweekly$51.00 / hour
- Base rate (nationwide)
- $90,925
- Locality pay+17.06%
- +$15,512
- Total basic pay
- $106,437
Step 2 pays $109,985 — +$3,548 after 1 year of creditable service at this step.
Every step of GS-13 in Rest of U.S.
| Step | Annual | Biweekly | Hourly | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $106,437 | $4,080.00 | $51.00 | — | |
| $109,985 | $4,216.00 | $52.70 | +$3,548 | |
| $113,533 | $4,352.00 | $54.40 | +$3,548 | |
| $117,081 | $4,488.00 | $56.10 | +$3,548 | |
| $120,629 | $4,624.00 | $57.80 | +$3,548 | |
| $124,177 | $4,760.00 | $59.50 | +$3,548 | |
| $127,725 | $4,896.00 | $61.20 | +$3,548 | |
| $131,273 | $5,032.00 | $62.90 | +$3,548 | |
| $134,822 | $5,168.00 | $64.60 | +$3,549 | |
| $138,370 | $5,304.00 | $66.30 | +$3,548 |
Basic pay only — no locality-exempt premiums, overtime, law-enforcement availability pay, special salary rates, or the value of FEHB, FERS and TSP. Source: OPM Salary Table 2026-GS and E.O. 14368 Schedule 9.
What open listings actually pay
State, county, city and contractor jobs have no GS table. This is the posted range on live postings — including federal ones, which is how you see where a grade sits against the wider market.
The same role, priced across every employer
Ayla TalentA GS grade is one of five prices for the same work. IT Specialist (2210 series), held constant, costs a state agency, a city, a contractor and an intelligence agency something different — and the gap is mostly pension and employer-paid benefits, not salary.
Federal
$168,829
total comp · GS-2210 · GS-13
State · IL
Locked
total comp · IL CMS · negotiated
Local · Chicago
Locked
total comp · Chicago · Schedule BX
Contractor
Locked
total comp · GovCon · GDIT
Intelligence
Locked
total comp · TS/SCI · DC
Built for hiring teams and recruiters. Job seekers: the GS calculator above is the complete federal answer, free.
- Where is the GS pay scale?
- At the top of this page. The calculator is OPM Salary Table 2026-GS — all 15 grades and 10 steps — with the locality rates from Executive Order 14368, and it reproduces OPM's published tables to the dollar.
- What is locality pay?
- A percentage added to the nationwide GS base rate for where the job is. There are 58 locality pay areas in 2026, from 17.06% for Rest of U.S. to 46.34% in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area. The same grade and step can differ by tens of thousands of dollars across them.
- How long until I move up a step?
- Within-grade increases take 52 weeks of creditable service for steps 1 to 3, 104 weeks for steps 4 to 6, and 156 weeks for steps 7 to 9. Step 10 is the top of the grade, so pay rises from there only by promotion, a locality change, or the annual adjustment.
- Is this base pay or total compensation?
- The calculator shows annual basic pay — base plus locality, capped at Executive Schedule level IV ($197,200). It excludes overtime, law-enforcement availability pay, special salary rates, and the employer value of FEHB, FERS and TSP. The posted-listing figures below it are advertised base pay as the employer wrote it.