GS Grade & Step Lookup
Look up the typical GS grade, step, and locality-adjusted pay range for a federal agency + occupation pairing. Built from OPM FedScope occupational averages and the General Schedule pay tables.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's FedScope occupational data and the 2025 General Schedule, this tool estimates the typical base-plus-locality pay range for a given federal grade, step, and duty location. See our methodology for the locality-adjustment formula and source detail.
Estimates derived from OPM FedScope occupational averages and the 2025 General Schedule. See methodology for the locality-adjustment formula. Always verify against the live posting at USAJobs.
GS pay reference scale
The reference scale behind the lookup: average federal salary at each General Schedule grade, GS-1 through GS-15, across all agencies. Your result depends on grade, step, and locality on top of these base averages.
How this lookup works
The tool combines three publicly available data sources: (1) the OPM occupational-series classification, which fixes pay ceilings by professional family; (2) the General Schedule pay tables for the chosen base year, which establish the GS-1 through GS-15 base ranges; and (3) the locality-pay-area adjustment table, which adds anywhere from about 17% (the "Rest of U.S." rate that applies everywhere outside a named locality area) to over 45% (San Francisco) on top of the base.
The "typical" grade is computed from FedScope occupational averages within the selected agency. The step estimate uses the average length of service in that series. Locality multipliers come from the OPM-published 2025 schedule.
PlainGovJobs is rendered directly from OPM FedScope federal-workforce data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool's reference scale draws directly on OPM FedScope occupational averages and the published GS pay tables. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.