When I was applying for federal jobs after separating from the Navy, the pay question messed with my head more than anything else. I'd see a GS-11 posting and have no idea whether that was a pay cut, a pay raise, or the same money I was making before. The base pay table on OPM's site looked like a spreadsheet from 1998, and the locality pay tables were somehow worse. I'd read "GS-11 Step 3" and think "what does that mean in my pocket on the 1st and the 15th?"

This guide walks you through exactly how to calculate your GS salary, step by step, the same way I now do it for every federal offer letter that lands in front of a veteran I'm helping. You'll learn how grade, step, and locality interact, how to estimate the real number before you apply, and how to avoid the mistakes I see veterans make when they eyeball the pay table and assume wrong.

No fake calculator that asks for your email. Just the math, with real OPM numbers and examples you can run for your own situation in about two minutes.

How the GS Pay Scale Actually Works

The General Schedule has 15 grades (GS-1 through GS-15) and 10 steps within each grade. Your base pay is determined by where you land in that grid, then locality pay is added on top based on where you physically work. That's the whole formula, but there's a lot packed into those three variables.

Grade is the biggest lever. Each grade jump is roughly a 15 percent base pay increase at Step 1. Steps within the same grade move you up about 3 percent at a time. So a one-grade promotion dwarfs a step increase, but you rarely get to choose your grade directly. The posting defines it, and you either qualify or you don't.

Locality pay is where it gets interesting for veterans. The base pay table is national, but OPM publishes around 58 locality pay areas, each with a different percentage added on top. San Francisco adds roughly 45 percent. Washington DC is around 33 percent. Huntsville, Alabama sits near 23 percent. The "Rest of U.S." (RUS) locality is the floor, usually around 17 to 18 percent. Same GS-12 Step 5 can pay $15,000 to $30,000 more in one city than another.

The 2025 GS base pay for GS-1 Step 1 starts around $22,000. GS-15 Step 10 tops out around $156,000 before locality. Once you add locality pay, GS-15 Step 10 in San Francisco can exceed $195,200, which is the current statutory cap. That cap matters — high-grade employees in high-cost localities get their pay capped at Executive Level IV, and that's a real thing that changes how senior federal careers pay out.

Step 1: Finding Your Grade on the Job Posting

Every USAJOBS posting lists the grade in the "Pay Scale & Grade" field near the top. You'll see things like "GS-09" or "GS-11/12/13" for ladder positions. A ladder posting means you can be hired at any of the listed grades depending on qualifications, and you'll likely promote through the grades without reapplying.

Ladder postings are a gift to veterans. If you see "GS-11/12/13," that means you could come in at GS-11 and move to GS-12 after one year, then GS-13 after another year, without competing for a new job each time. The promotions aren't automatic, but they're designed into the position and happen on a schedule tied to successful performance.

Your starting grade depends on qualification factors: education, specialized experience, and any veterans' preference or hiring authority you're using. The OPM Qualification Standards handbook spells out the specifics for each series, but for most professional positions, GS-7 requires one year of specialized experience at GS-5 level (or a bachelor's with Superior Academic Achievement), GS-9 requires specialized experience at GS-7 level (or a master's), GS-11 requires GS-9 experience (or a PhD or ABD), and GS-12 and up require one year of specialized experience at the next-lower grade.

Don't guess your grade from your military rank. I've written at length about this in my GS to military rank comparison guide, but the short version: rank equivalents are rough reference points, not hiring guarantees. An E-6 with 12 years doesn't automatically qualify for GS-11. Qualification is based on experience and education, not rank.

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Step 2: Figuring Out Your Starting Step

Almost everyone starts at Step 1 unless specific rules apply. Step 1 is the default for brand-new federal hires, and many veterans accept it without realizing they may qualify for higher.

The Superior Qualifications and Special Needs Pay-Setting Authority (SQSN) lets hiring managers start you above Step 1 if you can document unusually high qualifications, critical skills, or a current salary that would drop significantly if you took Step 1. I used this once when moving from a tech sales role into a federal contracting position. The hiring manager was able to set me at Step 4 because my private sector salary was substantially higher than GS-12 Step 1 in that locality.

To request SQSN, you need to ask before you accept the job offer. Most federal HR offices won't offer it unprompted. You'll provide documentation — usually pay stubs, W-2s, or an offer letter from a competing employer. The hiring manager has to justify it in writing and get HR approval. It's not a guarantee, but it's real, and veterans miss it constantly because nobody tells them.

After you start, you earn Within-Grade Increases (WGIs) on a set schedule. Steps 1-3 move up one step every 52 weeks (one year). Steps 4-6 move up every 104 weeks (two years). Steps 7-9 move up every 156 weeks (three years). Step 10 is the top of the grade — no more step increases, but you still get the annual January pay raise that applies to all GS employees.

Step 3: Calculating Your Locality Pay

Locality pay is added to your base salary as a percentage. OPM publishes the current percentages every January. For 2025, the locality rates range from about 17.63 percent (Rest of U.S.) to over 46 percent (San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose). The full list covers cities like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, and dozens more.

The math is straightforward once you have both numbers. Take your base pay from the national GS table, multiply by (1 + locality percentage), and that's your adjusted annual salary. Example: GS-11 Step 5 has a 2025 base of around $79,363. In the Washington DC locality (32.49 percent for 2025), that becomes $79,363 × 1.3249 = roughly $105,154. Same grade, same step, in the Huntsville locality (around 22.98 percent) would be $79,363 × 1.2298 = about $97,606. That's roughly a $7,500 difference for the exact same job.

Here's what veterans miss: your locality is determined by where you physically report for duty, not where you live. If you live in West Virginia but report to a Washington DC office, you get DC locality. If you're fully remote with no official duty station in a locality area, you get Rest of U.S. If your duty station is in Alaska or Hawaii, you get the non-foreign cost-of-living adjustments instead of locality pay, which work differently.

The locality pay area map matters a lot for dual-income military families. Moving from a high-locality area to a low-locality area for a PCS move can look like a pay cut on paper, even though the cost of living also dropped. For retirees thinking about where to settle, locality pay interacts with state taxes — I covered this in detail in my best states for military retirees guide.

Step 4: Running the Full Calculation With Real Examples

Let's walk through three real scenarios a veteran might face. I'll use 2025 base pay figures from OPM's published tables. These numbers are approximations — always verify against the current OPM.gov tables for your exact grade, step, and locality.

Example 1: Former E-6 transitioning to GS-9 Step 1 in Norfolk, Virginia.
GS-9 Step 1 base pay for 2025: approximately $57,118. Norfolk falls in the Virginia Beach–Norfolk locality area at approximately 19.73 percent. Calculation: $57,118 × 1.1973 = approximately $68,389 annually. That breaks down to roughly $2,630 per biweekly paycheck before taxes and benefits.

Example 2: Former O-3 (Captain/Lieutenant) moving to GS-12 Step 3 in the DC area.
GS-12 Step 3 base pay for 2025: approximately $82,258. Washington DC locality is around 32.49 percent. Calculation: $82,258 × 1.3249 = approximately $108,983 annually. For context on how this grade maps against military rank, I broke it down in detail in my GS-12 equivalent military rank guide.

Example 3: Former E-8 accepting GS-13 Step 5 in San Diego.
GS-13 Step 5 base pay for 2025: approximately $108,669. San Diego locality is around 32.01 percent. Calculation: $108,669 × 1.3201 = approximately $143,454 annually. GS-13 is the sweet spot for many senior enlisted veterans — full breakdown in the GS-13 equivalent military rank guide.

What About WG, AcqDemo, and Other Non-GS Pay Systems?

The GS scale isn't the only federal pay system. Wage Grade (WG) employees — trade workers, mechanics, technicians, shipyard workers — get paid on a completely different table based on regional prevailing wage surveys. If you're coming from a military rate that translates to a blue-collar federal role, you're more likely to land in WG than GS. I walked through how those two systems compare in my WG vs GS federal pay guide, and the specific WG-10 pay scale breakdown covers one of the most common grades veterans land at.

Department of Defense acquisition workforce positions often use AcqDemo, which replaces grades and steps with broadbands and a pay-for-performance structure. Your pay can move within a broadband based on annual performance ratings, which is different from the predictable step increases under GS. If you're applying for DoD acquisition jobs (contracting, program management, engineering, logistics), read my AcqDemo pay scale guide before you accept anything.

There are also the SES (Senior Executive Service) pay bands for GS-16 equivalent positions, ST (Scientific and Professional) for technical specialists, and agency-specific systems like the FBI, CIA, TSA, and VA nursing scales. The GS calculator logic doesn't apply to those. Always confirm which pay system the posting uses before you try to estimate the salary.

For analytical job series specifically, the pay math can get more nuanced because these series span multiple grades depending on the level of complexity. My 0343 pay scale guide shows how the same job title pays differently based on which grade the posting is advertised at.

How Military Retirement Pay Changes the Math

This is where a lot of retirees get caught off guard. If you're retiring from active duty and taking a federal civilian job, your military retirement pay doesn't reduce your GS salary under most circumstances. You get both. The old "dual compensation" offset rules that used to reduce federal civilian pay for retired officers were mostly repealed — today, most military retirees keep their full retirement pay alongside their full GS salary.

There are exceptions. Certain appointed positions and some reemployed annuitant scenarios still trigger offsets. And if you're collecting VA disability compensation, that doesn't affect your GS pay at all — VA disability is non-taxable and completely separate from federal civilian salary.

I broke down the full math with examples in my federal dual compensation guide — essential reading if you're retirement-eligible and looking at federal civilian jobs. The difference between assuming you'd lose retirement pay and knowing you keep it can change your whole career calculus.

One thing to watch out for: federal retirement credits. When you take a GS job after military service, you can "buy back" your military time toward your FERS civilian retirement. This doesn't change your current salary, but it does change your future pension. The deposit required is roughly 3 percent of your military base pay for the years you served, and it can add years of creditable service to your eventual annuity. Worth doing in most cases if you plan to retire from federal civilian service.

Common Mistakes Veterans Make With GS Pay

After reviewing hundreds of federal offer letters over the years, I see the same errors over and over. Here are the ones that cost veterans real money.

Mistake 1: Comparing GS base pay to military gross pay. Military gross includes BAH, BAS, and various special pays, most of which are tax-free. GS base pay is all taxable. When you compare, use your military base pay only, and then factor in the tax implications of BAH no longer being tax-advantaged. A GS-12 that looks like "the same money" as your E-7 pay might actually be a 10-15 percent cut in take-home once BAH disappears.

Mistake 2: Ignoring locality pay when comparing offers. A GS-11 job in DC can pay more than a GS-12 job in rural Georgia because of locality. Always compare total compensation (base + locality), not grade alone.

Mistake 3: Accepting Step 1 without asking about SQSN. Federal HR will default to Step 1 unless you make a case otherwise. If you're coming from a higher-paying civilian job or bring specialized skills, you may qualify for a higher starting step. Ask during the tentative offer conversation.

Mistake 4: Not factoring in benefits. Federal benefits are substantial — FEHB health coverage, TSP with 5 percent matching, FERS pension, 26 days of annual leave after three years of service (which includes creditable military time if you buy it back), 13 sick days, 11 federal holidays. A GS-12 with full federal benefits is not the same as a $100K private sector job without a match or pension.

Mistake 5: Assuming you can't negotiate. You can't negotiate base pay — that's set by the grade and step system. But you can negotiate starting step, relocation expenses, recruitment bonuses (for hard-to-fill positions), and credit for non-federal experience toward annual leave accrual. The "federal pay isn't negotiable" myth costs veterans thousands.

How to Build Your Federal Resume Around the Grade You Want

Knowing the math is half the battle. The other half is making sure your federal resume positions you for the grade you're actually qualified for. Federal resumes are 2 pages max under current OPM guidance and need to clearly document one year of specialized experience at the next-lower grade level for whatever target grade you're going for.

For a GS-12 posting, that means you need to prove one year of experience performing duties at the GS-11 level. For a GS-13, one year at GS-12 level. The resume reviewer is looking for specific language that matches the posting's specialized experience statement — exact phrases, exact responsibilities, exact tools.

Hours per week matter here too. Federal resumes require hours-per-week documentation for each position — without it, the reviewer may not be able to credit you with the full experience you're claiming. I covered this exact issue in my federal resume hours per week format guide. Miss this field, and your referral status can change overnight.

When you're applying to federal postings, track your applications carefully. The process is slow — 60 to 120 days is normal — and keeping tabs on which postings you submitted, which grades you applied for, and what the referral status is will save you from losing offers you didn't even know you had. My USAJOBS application tracker guide walks through the system I use.

If you're considering government contractor roles as an alternative or supplement to federal civilian work, the pay calculus is different — contractors don't get GS pay or federal benefits, but often have higher base salaries. My government contractor resume guide breaks down how to position for those roles.

What to Do Next

Before you apply to a single federal posting, run the pay math for your target grade, step, and locality. Take 10 minutes, pull up the current OPM pay tables on OPM.gov, apply your locality percentage, and know the real number. That keeps you from accepting a "promotion" that's actually a pay cut, and it sets you up to negotiate starting step when the tentative offer arrives.

If you're figuring out which grade you qualify for, check the 10 federal job series for veterans guide for the common series that map to military experience, and the GS-14 equivalent military rank guide if you're senior enlisted or O-4+ and wondering about higher grades.

If you're a veteran using a special hiring authority — VRA, VEOA, 30% or more disabled — your pathway into federal service changes the grade rules. My hiring authorities guide covers which authority works best for which grade range.

And if your federal resume isn't dialed in to the grade you want, that's where the pay math stops mattering. The best-negotiated Step 4 won't help you if you didn't qualify for the grade in the first place. BMR's Federal Resume Builder handles the federal formatting, specialized experience language, and hours-per-week documentation automatically — built by a veteran who got hired into six different federal career fields and reviewed resumes from the hiring side. Free tier includes two tailored federal resumes, which is enough to test it against two real postings before you commit.