General Schedule Pay System

Congress first standardized white-collar federal pay in the Classification Act of 1923, and the Classification Act of October 28, 1949, created the General Schedule, which remains in use. The GS has 15 grades, from GS-1 for entry-level clerical work to GS-15 for senior specialists and managers, each with 10 steps. Jobs are assigned a grade based on their duties and required qualifications using standards published by the Office of Personnel Management, and blue-collar employees are paid under a separate Federal Wage System.

Employees advance through the steps within a grade based on time in service and acceptable performance, and move to higher grades through promotion. The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 added locality pay, so salaries vary by metropolitan area to reflect local labor markets, with the highest rates in areas such as San Francisco, New York, and Washington. Each year the President proposes, and Congress can change, an across-the-board raise and locality adjustments, and pay at the top of the scale is capped by law at the level of senior political appointees.

The GS covers about 1.5 million employees, roughly two-thirds of the federal civilian workforce, though agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Reserve, and parts of the Defense Department use their own pay systems. Federal pay surveys have long found that GS salaries lag private-sector pay for comparable jobs, especially at higher grades, while other studies find that total compensation, including benefits, is higher for less-educated workers. Supporters of the system value its transparency and predictability, while critics say it rewards seniority over performance and makes it hard to compete for skilled specialists.