GS-10 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $58,064 Base, Up to $110,456

Who is on GS-10

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-10	13,738 employees, 1.1% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-10 or higher	69.5% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$79,295, the median of the 10,390 full-time GS-10 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 76.0% of the grade’s 13,674 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	11%
At step 10	12%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	22%
Law enforcement officers	GL-10 step 1 is $59,999, 3.3% more than GS-10 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale)

GS-10 is the fourth-least common of the fifteen grades, with 13,738 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Veterans Claims Examining (0996), Diagnostic Radiologic Technologist (0647) and Nurse (0610), and the Department of Veterans Affairs employs the most of them, 8,640.

Only at step 1 is a GS-10 paid time and a half for overtime: that is the GS-10 step 1 rate itself. From step 2 the hourly rate is above that of GS-10 step 1, and for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers) the overtime hour is capped at one and a half times the GS-10 step 1 rate: the premium falls from 45.2 percent at step 2 to 15.4 percent at step 10 in Rest of U.S.

69.5% of GS employees are at GS-10 or higher

At $79,295, the median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-10 is 1.6 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations; 13,738 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-10.

Every step of GS-10 pays above the U.S. median hourly wage

$27.82 to $36.17 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and with Rest of U.S. locality pay even step 1, $32.57, is above the national median of $24.51 an hour.

Military equivalent of GS-10: O-3

Military grade O-3 — a Captain in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Lieutenant in the Navy and Coast Guard — is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-10 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-11.

Source: DoD Instruction 1000.01, Tables 1 and 2 (what it is for, and its limits). This is not a pay equivalence.
Military grade	O-3
Geneva Conventions category	III, company grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	Captain
Navy, Coast Guard	Lieutenant
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-11

GS-10 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	$58,064	$27.82	—	—	0
Step 2	$59,999	$28.75	+$1,935	52	1
Step 3	$61,934	$29.68	+$1,935	52	2
Step 4	$63,869	$30.60	+$1,935	52	3
Step 5	$65,804	$31.53	+$1,935	104	5
Step 6	$67,739	$32.46	+$1,935	104	7
Step 7	$69,674	$33.38	+$1,935	104	9
Step 8	$71,609	$34.31	+$1,935	156	12
Step 9	$73,544	$35.24	+$1,935	156	15
Step 10	$75,479	$36.17	+$1,935	156	18

GS-10 step 5 in every locality pay area

$77,030 in Rest of U.S. to $96,298 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$19,268** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $80,011, worth $92,013 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	$96,298	110.4	$87,208
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$90,777	112.6	$80,646
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$89,803	113.6	$79,076
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$88,835	98.6	$90,070
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$88,138	108.9	$80,947
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$87,993	111.9	$78,645
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$87,243	108.3	$80,582
8	State of Alaska	$87,098	102.4	$85,091
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$86,914	102.7	$84,591
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$86,578	111.1	$77,905
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$86,111	103.6	$83,123
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$85,887	105.8	$81,192
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$85,387	106.7	$80,048
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$84,966	100.3	$84,714
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$84,881	102.6	$82,767
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$83,979	104.8	$80,116
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$83,742	103.1	$81,232
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$82,999	105.4	$78,731
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$82,038	114.2	$71,865
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$81,459	100.1	$81,412
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$80,577	103.3	$77,991
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$80,557	96.9	$83,102
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$80,551	95.8	$84,044
24	Richmond, VA	$80,465	97.9	$82,226
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$80,439	98.2	$81,949
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$80,432	93.9	$85,636
27	State of Hawaii	$80,419	110.0	$73,141
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$80,380	95.5	$84,195
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$80,235	95.4	$84,130
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$80,222	93.1	$86,193
31	Laredo, TX	$80,011	87.0	$92,013
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$79,899	92.7	$86,197
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$79,643	94.7	$84,126
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$79,471	99.6	$79,817
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$79,195	98.1	$80,757
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$79,064	100.7	$78,509
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$78,985	95.1	$83,065
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$78,748	97.3	$80,893
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$78,682	100.2	$78,513
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$78,603	100.9	$77,864
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$78,590	98.7	$79,665
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$78,491	96.9	$81,005
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$78,287	92.5	$84,595
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$78,261	89.1	$87,856
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$78,175	97.9	$79,818
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$78,162	94.7	$82,522
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$77,866	95.5	$81,496
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$77,807	91.6	$84,901
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$77,800	91.9	$84,647
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$77,747	95.7	$81,244
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$77,655	91.7	$84,683
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$77,603	100.0	$77,599
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$77,570	97.0	$79,940
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$77,432	100.3	$77,165
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$77,418	102.2	$75,783
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$77,405	92.7	$83,527
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$77,333	101.0	$76,557
58	Rest of U.S.	$77,030	—	—

What a GS-10 earns where you are

GS-10, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$88,138

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-10 to GS-11

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-10	Lands on GS-11	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$5,731
Step 2	Step 2	+$5,923
Step 3	Step 2	+$3,988
Step 4	Step 3	+$4,180
Step 5	Step 4	+$4,372
Step 6	Step 5	+$4,564
Step 7	Step 6	+$4,756
Step 8	Step 7	+$4,948
Step 9	Step 8	+$5,140
Step 10	Step 9	+$5,332

Until 18 January 2027 a promotion to GS-11 needs 52 weeks at GS-10 in a line of work that moves one grade at a time (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).