The 2026 federal pay raise landed at 1.0 percent. Locality pay tables stayed frozen at 2025 levels. That is the headline most veterans missed.

After watching thousands of veterans apply to federal jobs through BMR, the pay raise is the most-asked question. People ask the same way every January. They ask if their offer letter math still holds. They ask if the locality bump they planned on shows up. They ask what happens to the step they negotiated.

This year the answer is short. Your base pay went up about 1 percent. Your locality percentage did not move. Your step is still your step. But the small print matters. Law enforcement got a bigger bump. Title 38 nurses moved on a different track. A few special pay scales saw their own changes. And the 2027 picture is already messy.

If you are about to start a federal job, you read this first. Same if you just got an offer letter. Same if you are sitting in a step negotiation. It is news, not theory. The new tables are live. First paychecks under the 2026 rates went out the week of January 11.

Below is what changed, what did not, and the numbers to run before you sign. Need the basics on how the GS scale works? Start with the BMR federal GS pay scale guide for veterans. This piece is the news layer on top.

What is the 2026 federal pay raise percentage?

The 2026 federal pay raise is 1.0 percent across the board on the General Schedule. That is the statutory bump for almost every GS employee.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14368 in late December 2025. The order set the across-the-board figure at 1.0 percent. It also held locality pay at 2025 levels. No locality bump rode on top.

That is smaller than recent years. GS employees got 2.7 percent in 2022. Then 4.6 percent in 2023. Then 5.2 percent in 2024. Then 2.0 percent in 2025. The 2026 number breaks the trend.

The new rates took effect the first pay period on or after January 1, 2026. For most of the workforce that meant January 11. Your first paycheck under the new rate hit two weeks after.

One big exception. Covered law enforcement officers got the 1.0 percent base bump plus about 2.8 percent extra. LEOs landed at roughly 3.8 percent total. That is the LEO add-on built into the EO.

For everyone else, the math is simple. Pull your 2025 base pay. Add 1 percent. Multiply by (1 + your locality percentage). That is your 2026 annual salary before deductions.

Verify the 2026 tables on the OPM 2026 General Schedule salary table. The OPM memo on January 2026 pay adjustments is the authoritative source. If your offer letter does not match, push back before you sign.

Did locality pay tables change for 2026?

No. Locality pay percentages held flat in 2026. Every locality kept its 2025 percentage.

That is the part that hurts. In a normal year, OPM splits the raise. Some goes to base pay. Some goes to locality. The 2025 raise of 2 percent split that way. The 2026 EO put the full 1.0 percent on base pay. Zero went to locality.

So if you live in San Francisco, your locality stayed at the 2025 percentage. Same for New York. Same for D.C. Same for the Rest of U.S. zone. Same for every named locality area.

What did change is the dollar amount of locality pay. Because base went up 1 percent, the dollar value of your locality also went up. Locality is a percentage of base. A bigger base means a bigger locality dollar even though the percent stayed flat.

That matters when you read your offer letter. Do not let the higher dollar trick you into thinking locality went up. The percentage on the OPM table is the same.

For more on how locality works, the BMR guide on GS locality pay by location walks the math. The 2026 list of locality areas is the same as 2025.

Action item. Pull the locality table for the duty station on your offer. Confirm the percentage matches the 2025 number. Confirm the duty station is the city OPM lists for that locality. Some cities pull into a metro locality. Others sit in Rest of U.S. The wrong assumption can cost you thousands a year.

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How does the 2026 raise affect a transitioning veteran's offer letter?

If your start date is in 2026, your offer letter should already reflect the new rates. If it was written in 2025 with a 2026 start date, run the numbers yourself before you sign.

The math is one calculation. Take the GS grade and step from your tentative offer. Look up the 2026 base pay for that grade and step on the OPM table. Multiply by (1 + locality percentage for your duty station). That gives your 2026 annual salary. The HR specialist should arrive at the same number. If they do not, ask them to walk you through it.

Two things to verify before you sign.

The grade must match what the announcement said. Tentative offers sometimes drop a grade because of qualification reviews. If your USAJOBS resume did not show the right specialized experience, HR can offer at a lower grade. That is the place to push back if the grade dropped.

The step is the bigger negotiation. Most new federal hires come in at Step 1 by default. But veterans coming from a higher private-sector salary can ask for a higher step under superior qualifications. The 2026 raise does not change the step rules. It just changes the dollar value at each step. Negotiated Step 5 in 2025 with a 2026 start date? Your Step 5 should be the 2026 figure, not the 2025 figure.

One more piece. Veterans get veterans preference for hiring. Veterans preference does not change pay. It changes ranking on the certificate of eligibles. Once you are hired, your pay is set by grade, step, and locality. Nothing else. So do not assume preference gets you a higher step. Step negotiations are a separate conversation. The BMR guide to negotiating your GS level covers how to frame that ask without burning the offer.

Action item. Before you sign, send HR a one-line email. Confirm the grade, step, base pay, locality percentage, and total annual salary in numbers. Get it in writing. That is your insurance.

Did Title 38 and special pay scales get the same raise?

Mostly yes, with some asterisks. Title 38 scales for VA nurses and other VHA roles got the 1.0 percent statutory bump. That applies to the base portion that ties to the General Schedule. Locality on Title 38 also held at 2025 percentages.

The wrinkle on Title 38 is that the VA Secretary has authority under 38 U.S.C. 7455 to raise pay rates further when needed to recruit or retain. So a VA medical center in a tight labor market can sometimes pay above the GS base. That is on top of the 1 percent. A corpsman, medic, or medical tech moving to VA should ask if 7455 enhancements apply at that station.

For nurse-specific numbers, the BMR Title 38 pay scale 2026 breakdown has the table by grade and step.

AcqDemo, the DoD acquisition demo project, runs on its own pay bands. But it ties annual adjustments to the GS rate. So AcqDemo employees got the same 1 percent base bump. Locality held flat there too. The BMR AcqDemo pay scale guide covers how the broadband ranges adjusted.

Cyber Excepted Service, used by DoD for 2210 cyber positions, also moves with the GS adjustment. Pay bands shifted up by the 1 percent. The BMR Cyber Excepted Service pay guide walks through the pay bands.

Special salary rates are different. OPM maintains special rates for hard-to-fill jobs. Some 2210 IT roles, some medical roles, some nuclear engineering roles. Those rates did not get a uniform 1 percent. OPM updates them on a job-by-job and locality-by-locality basis. Some rates went up more. Some held. Check the OPM special rates table for your exact occupational series.

Wage Grade workers fall under a separate process. Wage surveys drive WG pay, not the EO. The BMR WG vs GS pay comparison covers how those two systems move on different clocks.

How does this raise change step negotiation in 2026?

Step negotiation got harder, not easier, because the 2026 raise was small. Here is why.

When HR decides your starting step, they compare your private salary to the GS table. A salary between Step 4 and Step 5 often gets Step 5. That is the superior qualifications process under 5 CFR 531.212.

The 1 percent raise moved every step up by 1 percent. So the dollar value at every step is higher in 2026 than 2025. That means a private salary that justified Step 5 in 2025 might only justify Step 4 in 2026. Same dollar amount on your end. Higher step values on their end. The gap closes.

Example. A $95,000 private salary used to land near Step 6 of GS-12 in many localities in 2025. In 2026 that same $95,000 sits closer to Step 5. Your step room shrunk by 1 percent.

What this means in practice. If you are negotiating right now, do the math both ways. Run your private salary against the 2025 table and the 2026 table. Then anchor your ask to the 2025 number where it helps you. The HR specialist may push back. But the actual step negotiation is comparing your salary to the table that exists when you start. So the 2026 table is what they will officially use.

One trick that still works. Ask for credit toward annual leave accrual under the same 5 CFR rules. Veterans with prior federal time get credit automatically. Vets with private-sector experience can negotiate annual leave service credit at GS-13 or above. That does not change pay. But it pulls you up to 6 hours of leave per pay period from day one. Not 4. The dollar value over a year of work is real. The BMR step negotiation guide above covers the framing.

Step increases after you start are a different timeline. Steps 1-3 advance every 52 weeks. Steps 4-6 advance every 104 weeks. Steps 7-9 advance every 156 weeks. The BMR GS step increase timeline walks through the dollar amounts at each grade.

Action item. If your offer is Step 1 and your private salary is above Step 1, do not accept yet. Ask about superior qualifications. Send your last two years of W-2s. Ask them to compute the step that matches your salary using 2026 rates.

What happens to federal pay in 2027?

The 2027 picture is unsettled and worth watching. The White House FY2027 budget proposal called for a pay freeze for civilian federal employees. The same proposal asked for a 7 percent raise for the military.

That is the starting bid. Congress almost always pushes back on proposed federal pay freezes. During Trump's first term, Congress overrode his proposed freezes in three of four years. In 2026 itself, the FY26 budget initially omitted a civilian raise. The 1 percent EO came later in December 2025.

House Democrats have already proposed an alternative. A 4.1 percent raise for civilian federal employees. The split would be 3.1 percent across the board plus an average 1 percent locality boost. House Republicans have so far blocked that path. The final number will be set late in 2026, either through appropriations or a December executive order.

What this means for transitioning vets. Do not plan your offer letter math around a 2027 raise. Plan it around the 2026 numbers that exist today. If a 2027 raise lands, treat it as upside. If a freeze holds, you are not surprised.

The deeper play here is locality. Even if base pay freezes, the Federal Salary Council can recommend new locality areas or boost existing percentages. Those changes can clear in years where base pay does not move. A high-cost-area employee can still get a small bump in a freeze year if locality moves.

One more 2027 angle. The Federal Salary Council usually meets in spring and fall. Their reports drive the locality recommendations. If you are in a metro pushing for its own locality area split-out, watch those reports. A new locality area can land mid-cycle.

Action item. Bookmark the OPM pay and leave page. Check it every December. The annual EO usually drops between December 15 and December 31 of the prior year. That is when you find out the real number for the next year.

How do you verify your 2026 paycheck is correct?

Pull your most recent Leave and Earnings Statement from your federal payroll system. Look at three lines.

The base pay annual rate. Multiply your bi-weekly base pay by 26 (or your hourly rate by 2,087 hours). Compare to the 2026 OPM base pay table for your grade and step. Should match within rounding.

The locality percentage. Your LES often does not show the percentage directly. It shows your locality dollar amount. Divide that by your base pay rate. The result should match your locality area percentage on the OPM table.

The total adjusted basic pay. Base pay plus locality dollar amount. That is the number that drives almost everything else in your federal benefits package. Your retirement contribution. Your TSP percentage. Your overtime calculations.

If any of these do not match, contact your HR. Mistakes happen. Most are caught and corrected within a pay period or two. But you have to flag it. Payroll will not catch errors on its own.

For new hires whose first paycheck arrived in 2026, the same check applies. The first LES under federal payroll always looks confusing. Pre-tax deductions for FEHB, FEGLI, TSP, and FERS take a chunk. You did not see those in private pay stubs. The base pay number on the LES is the cleanest line to check against the OPM table.

For higher grades, the BMR GS-13 salary 2026 by location post has the math. So does the GS-14 salary 2026 ranges post.

To estimate before you have a paycheck, try the BMR GS pay scale calculator for veterans. It walks the math grade by grade. Useful when you are still picking which announcement to target.

Action item. The week your first 2026 paycheck lands, do the math against the OPM table. Verify the three lines above. If anything is off by more than $50 a year, send a one-line note to your HR specialist. Get it documented.

What does this mean for your federal application strategy?

The 2026 raise is small. But the federal hiring system did not change. The same OPM 2-page resume rules from late 2025 still apply. The same USAJOBS keyword discipline still applies. The same KSA-driven scoring still applies.

What did change is the dollar value at every grade. So when you target an announcement, you can run real numbers right now. Pull the grade. Pull the locality. Multiply through. That is your offer ceiling. Then ask whether the work is worth it at that ceiling.

Two practical moves. First, broaden the duty stations you are willing to consider. Some lower-cost localities still pay well because the locality percentage compensates more than you might expect. Second, watch the cyber, medical, and engineering announcements that sit on special salary rates. Those rates did not all freeze with the 1.0 percent base. Some are still moving.

Not pulling callbacks at the grade you want? The BMR federal resume builder is built on the OPM 2-page format and USAJOBS scoring. The pay table tells you what the job is worth. The resume decides if you get the offer.

Two more cluster reads worth your time. The BMR GS-2210-11 vs GS-2210-12 qualification guide covers cyber series qualification. The BMR highest-paying military-to-civilian jobs in 2026 compares federal pay to private pay at the same skill level.

One last note. The 2026 raise was the smallest since 2014. Vets entering federal service should not let that distract them. The federal package adds up. Base plus locality plus FERS plus TSP match plus FEHB plus leave plus job security. That total beats most private offers at the same base. Run the full comparison before you walk away.