GS-1 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $22,584 Base, Up to $41,338

Who is on GS-1

Sources: OPM Federal Workforce Data, May 2026, pay only where OPM publishes it; national median wage: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (sources and caveats).
Employees on GS-1	156 employees, 0.01% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-1 or higher	99.99% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	Not given: OPM publishes the pay of only 25 full-time GS-1 employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	0%
At step 10	3%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	1%
Law enforcement officers	The GL table begins at grade 3 and does not apply here

GS-1 is the least common of the fifteen grades, with 156 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Biological Science Technician (0404), Business and Industry Student Trainee (1199) and Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant (0303), and the Department of Agriculture employs the most of them, 105.

3% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the lowest share of any grade.

Every step of GS-1 is paid less an hour than GS-10 step 1, so an overtime hour is paid at time and a half at every step of the grade, in all 58 areas.

GS-1, the lowest grade of the schedule

156 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-1, and even its top step with the highest locality pay, $41,338, is below the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

No step of GS-1 reaches the U.S. median hourly wage

$10.82 to $13.54 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10; even at step 10 with the highest locality pay it stays under the national median of $24.51 an hour.

Military equivalent of GS-1: E-1 to E-3

Enlisted grades E-1 to E-3, category I, are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-1 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-2 and GS-3.

Source: DoD Instruction 1000.01, Table 2 (what it is for, and its limits). This is not a pay equivalence.
Military grade	E-1 to E-3
Geneva Conventions category	I, enlisted
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-2, GS-3

GS-1 base pay, step by step

OPM 2026 base table, before locality pay; waits by 5 CFR 531.405 (reading these tables; the date of your next).
Step	Base rate	Hourly	Increase	Wait (weeks)	Total (years)
Step 1	$22,584	$10.82	—	—	0
Step 2	$23,341	$11.18	+$757	52	1
Step 3	$24,092	$11.54	+$751	52	2
Step 4	$24,840	$11.90	+$748	52	3
Step 5	$25,589	$12.26	+$749	104	5
Step 6	$26,028	$12.47	+$439	104	7
Step 7	$26,771	$12.83	+$743	104	9
Step 8	$27,519	$13.19	+$748	156	12
Step 9	$27,550	$13.20	+$31	156	15
Step 10	$28,248	$13.54	+$698	156	18

GS-1 steps are not evenly spaced: step 9 adds only $31 and step 2 adds $757, while from GS-3 up every step of a grade adds the same amount.

GS-1 step 5 in every locality pay area

$29,954 in Rest of U.S. to $37,447 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$7,493** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $31,114, worth $35,781 at national prices. Sources: OPM 2026 tables; BEA RPP 2024 (reading this table).
#	Locality	Salary	Price level	What it buys
1	San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA	$37,447	110.4	$33,912
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$35,300	112.6	$31,360
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$34,921	113.6	$30,750
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$34,545	98.6	$35,025
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$34,274	108.9	$31,478
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$34,218	111.9	$30,583
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$33,926	108.3	$31,336
8	State of Alaska	$33,870	102.4	$33,089
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$33,798	102.7	$32,895
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$33,667	111.1	$30,294
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$33,486	103.6	$32,324
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$33,399	105.8	$31,573
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$33,204	106.7	$31,128
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$33,041	100.3	$32,943
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$33,007	102.6	$32,185
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$32,657	104.8	$31,155
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$32,565	103.1	$31,589
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$32,275	105.4	$30,615
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$31,902	114.2	$27,946
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$31,677	100.1	$31,659
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$31,334	103.3	$30,328
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$31,326	96.9	$32,316
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$31,323	95.8	$32,681
24	Richmond, VA	$31,290	97.9	$31,975
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$31,280	98.2	$31,867
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$31,277	93.9	$33,301
27	State of Hawaii	$31,272	110.0	$28,442
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$31,257	95.5	$32,740
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$31,201	95.4	$32,716
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$31,196	93.1	$33,518
31	Laredo, TX	$31,114	87.0	$35,781
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$31,070	92.7	$33,519
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$30,970	94.7	$32,713
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$30,904	99.6	$31,039
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$30,796	98.1	$31,403
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$30,745	100.7	$30,529
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$30,714	95.1	$32,301
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$30,622	97.3	$31,456
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$30,597	100.2	$30,531
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$30,566	100.9	$30,279
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$30,561	98.7	$30,979
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$30,523	96.9	$31,501
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$30,443	92.5	$32,896
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$30,433	89.1	$34,164
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$30,400	97.9	$31,039
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$30,395	94.7	$32,091
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$30,279	95.5	$31,690
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$30,256	91.6	$33,015
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$30,254	91.9	$32,917
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$30,233	95.7	$31,593
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$30,198	91.7	$32,931
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$30,177	100.0	$30,175
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$30,164	97.0	$31,086
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$30,111	100.3	$30,007
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$30,105	102.2	$29,469
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$30,100	92.7	$32,480
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$30,072	101.0	$29,770
58	Rest of U.S.	$29,954	—	—

What a GS-1 earns where you are

GS-1, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$34,274

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-1 to GS-2

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-1	Lands on GS-2	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$2,809
Step 2	Step 1	+$2,052
Step 3	Step 2	+$1,905
Step 4	Step 3	+$1,999
Step 5	Step 3	+$1,250
Step 6	Step 4	+$1,522
Step 7	Step 4	+$779
Step 8	Step 6	+$1,158
Step 9	Step 7	+$1,946
Step 10	Step 8	+$2,067

No time-in-grade minimum applies to a promotion to GS-2: up to GS-5 the only time-in-grade limit is that the move is no more than two grades above the lowest grade held in the past 52 weeks, and it applies until 18 January 2027 (5 CFR 300.604; OPM’s final rule, 91 FR 65887, removes it from 19 January 2027; qualification standards still apply, and OPM says it is reviewing separately the one-year service period they have historically included).