GS-12 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $76,463 Base, Up to $145,468

Who is on GS-12

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-12	277,838 employees, 21.7% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-12 or higher	54.2% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$111,168, the median of the 122,308 full-time GS-12 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 44.6% of the grade’s 274,239 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	9%
At step 10	11%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	65%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-12: it stops at grade 10, so officers are paid from the table above unless OPM’s 2026 special rates cover the position (law enforcement pay)

GS-12 is the most common of the fifteen grades, with 277,838 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Customs and Border Protection (1895), Miscellaneous Administration and Program (0301) and Information Technology Management (2210), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 94,041.

11% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the second-lowest share of any grade.

At GS-12 the overtime premium is small for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers): the cap of one and a half times the GS-10 step 1 rate is 13.9 percent above the ordinary hour at step 1 and 0.5 percent at step 5 in Rest of U.S., and from step 6 it is gone — an overtime hour pays exactly the ordinary hourly rate, in all 58 areas.

GS-12, the grade of the median GS employee

45.8% of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are below GS-12 and 32.5% above it, and the median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-12, $111,168, is 2.2 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.

GS-12 starts well above the U.S. median hourly wage

$36.64 to $47.63 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and at step 1 with Rest of U.S. locality pay, $42.89, it pays 1.7 times the national median of $24.51 an hour.

Military equivalent of GS-12: O-4

Military grade O-4 — a Major in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and Coast Guard — is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-12 on Geneva Conventions identification cards.

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-4
Geneva Conventions category	IV, field grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	Major
Navy, Coast Guard	Lieutenant Commander
Other GS grades in the same row	none

GS-12 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	$76,463	$36.64	—	—	0
Step 2	$79,012	$37.86	+$2,549	52	1
Step 3	$81,561	$39.08	+$2,549	52	2
Step 4	$84,110	$40.30	+$2,549	52	3
Step 5	$86,659	$41.52	+$2,549	104	5
Step 6	$89,208	$42.74	+$2,549	104	7
Step 7	$91,757	$43.97	+$2,549	104	9
Step 8	$94,306	$45.19	+$2,549	156	12
Step 9	$96,855	$46.41	+$2,549	156	15
Step 10	$99,404	$47.63	+$2,549	156	18

GS-12 step 5 in every locality pay area

$101,443 in Rest of U.S. to $126,817 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$25,374** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $105,369, worth $121,175 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	$126,817	110.4	$114,847
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$119,546	112.6	$106,204
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$118,264	113.6	$104,137
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$116,990	98.6	$118,616
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$116,071	108.9	$106,601
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$115,880	111.9	$103,569
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$114,893	108.3	$106,121
8	State of Alaska	$114,702	102.4	$112,059
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$114,459	102.7	$111,400
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$114,017	111.1	$102,595
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$113,402	103.6	$109,467
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$113,107	105.8	$106,925
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$112,449	106.7	$105,418
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$111,894	100.3	$111,562
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$111,781	102.6	$108,997
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$110,594	104.8	$105,506
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$110,282	103.1	$106,976
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$109,303	105.4	$103,682
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$108,038	114.2	$94,641
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$107,275	100.1	$107,213
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$106,114	103.3	$102,708
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$106,088	96.9	$109,440
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$106,079	95.8	$110,679
24	Richmond, VA	$105,967	97.9	$108,286
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$105,932	98.2	$107,921
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$105,923	93.9	$112,776
27	State of Hawaii	$105,906	110.0	$96,321
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$105,854	95.5	$110,878
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$105,663	95.4	$110,793
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$105,646	93.1	$113,510
31	Laredo, TX	$105,369	87.0	$121,175
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$105,221	92.7	$113,514
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$104,883	94.7	$110,787
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$104,658	99.6	$105,114
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$104,294	98.1	$106,351
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$104,121	100.7	$103,390
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$104,017	95.1	$109,390
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$103,705	97.3	$106,530
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$103,618	100.2	$103,396
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$103,514	100.9	$102,541
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$103,497	98.7	$104,913
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$103,367	96.9	$106,678
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$103,098	92.5	$111,406
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$103,064	89.1	$115,700
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$102,951	97.9	$105,115
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$102,934	94.7	$108,676
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$102,544	95.5	$107,324
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$102,466	91.6	$111,809
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$102,457	91.9	$111,474
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$102,388	95.7	$106,993
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$102,266	91.7	$111,521
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$102,197	100.0	$102,192
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$102,154	97.0	$105,275
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$101,972	100.3	$101,620
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$101,954	102.2	$99,800
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$101,937	92.7	$109,999
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$101,842	101.0	$100,820
58	Rest of U.S.	$101,443	—	—

What a GS-12 earns where you are

GS-12, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$116,071

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-12 to GS-13

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-12	Lands on GS-13	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$14,462
Step 2	Step 1	+$11,913
Step 3	Step 1	+$9,364
Step 4	Step 1	+$6,815
Step 5	Step 2	+$7,297
Step 6	Step 3	+$7,779
Step 7	Step 3	+$5,230
Step 8	Step 4	+$5,712
Step 9	Step 5	+$6,194
Step 10	Step 6	+$6,676

Until 18 January 2027 a promotion to GS-13 needs 52 weeks at GS-12, with no two-grade route from GS-12 up (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).