GS-13 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $90,925 Base, Up to $172,980

Who is on GS-13

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-13	240,375 employees, 18.8% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-13 or higher	32.5% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$137,071, the median of the 120,475 full-time GS-13 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 50.7% of the grade’s 237,479 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	21%
At step 10	14%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	90%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-13: 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-13 is the second-most common of the fifteen grades, with 240,375 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Criminal Investigation (1811), Management and Program Analysis (0343) and Information Technology Management (2210), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 64,955.

21% of them are supervisors or managers, the third-highest share of any grade.

14% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the third-highest share of any grade.

At every step of GS-13 an overtime hour pays exactly the ordinary hourly rate for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers): overtime above the hourly rate of GS-10 step 1 is capped at one and a half times that rate, and a GS-13 is paid more than the cap from step 1.

Only 32.5% of GS employees are at GS-13 or higher

The median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-13, $137,071, is 2.7 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations; 240,375 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-13.

The first step of GS-13 already doubles the U.S. median hourly wage

$43.57 to $56.64 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and even step 1 with Rest of U.S. locality pay, $51.00, is 2.1 times the national median of $24.51 an hour.

Military equivalent of GS-13: O-5

Military grade O-5 — a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Commander in the Navy and Coast Guard — is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-13 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-14.

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-5
Geneva Conventions category	IV, field grade officer
Army, Air Force, Marine Corps	Lieutenant Colonel
Navy, Coast Guard	Commander
Other GS grades in the same row	GS-14

GS-13 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	$90,925	$43.57	—	—	0
Step 2	$93,956	$45.02	+$3,031	52	1
Step 3	$96,987	$46.47	+$3,031	52	2
Step 4	$100,018	$47.92	+$3,031	52	3
Step 5	$103,049	$49.38	+$3,031	104	5
Step 6	$106,080	$50.83	+$3,031	104	7
Step 7	$109,111	$52.28	+$3,031	104	9
Step 8	$112,142	$53.73	+$3,031	156	12
Step 9	$115,173	$55.19	+$3,031	156	15
Step 10	$118,204	$56.64	+$3,031	156	18

GS-13 step 5 in every locality pay area

$120,629 in Rest of U.S. to $150,802 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$30,173** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $125,297, worth $144,092 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	$150,802	110.4	$136,568
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$142,156	112.6	$126,290
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$140,631	113.6	$123,832
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$139,116	98.6	$141,050
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$138,024	108.9	$126,762
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$137,797	111.9	$123,157
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$136,622	108.3	$126,191
8	State of Alaska	$136,396	102.4	$133,253
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$136,107	102.7	$132,469
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$135,582	111.1	$122,000
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$134,850	103.6	$130,170
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$134,500	105.8	$127,148
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$133,716	106.7	$125,355
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$133,057	100.3	$132,662
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$132,923	102.6	$129,613
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$131,511	104.8	$125,461
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$131,140	103.1	$127,209
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$129,976	105.4	$123,292
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$128,471	114.2	$112,541
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$127,564	100.1	$127,490
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$126,184	103.3	$122,134
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$126,153	96.9	$130,139
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$126,142	95.8	$131,612
24	Richmond, VA	$126,008	97.9	$128,766
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$125,967	98.2	$128,332
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$125,957	93.9	$134,107
27	State of Hawaii	$125,936	110.0	$114,538
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$125,874	95.5	$131,848
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$125,648	95.4	$131,748
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$125,627	93.1	$134,978
31	Laredo, TX	$125,297	87.0	$144,092
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$125,122	92.7	$134,984
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$124,720	94.7	$131,740
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$124,452	99.6	$124,994
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$124,019	98.1	$126,465
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$123,813	100.7	$122,944
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$123,690	95.1	$130,080
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$123,319	97.3	$126,679
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$123,216	100.2	$122,952
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$123,092	100.9	$121,935
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$123,071	98.7	$124,755
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$122,917	96.9	$126,855
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$122,597	92.5	$132,476
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$122,556	89.1	$137,581
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$122,422	97.9	$124,996
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$122,402	94.7	$129,231
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$121,938	95.5	$127,622
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$121,845	91.6	$132,955
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$121,835	91.9	$132,558
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$121,752	95.7	$127,228
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$121,608	91.7	$132,614
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$121,526	100.0	$121,520
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$121,474	97.0	$125,186
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$121,258	100.3	$120,840
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$121,237	102.2	$118,676
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$121,217	92.7	$130,804
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$121,103	101.0	$119,887
58	Rest of U.S.	$120,629	—	—

What a GS-13 earns where you are

GS-13, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$138,024

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-13 to GS-14

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-13	Lands on GS-14	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$16,521
Step 2	Step 1	+$13,490
Step 3	Step 1	+$10,459
Step 4	Step 1	+$7,428
Step 5	Step 2	+$7,979
Step 6	Step 3	+$8,530
Step 7	Step 4	+$9,081
Step 8	Step 5	+$9,632
Step 9	Step 5	+$6,601
Step 10	Step 6	+$7,152

Until 18 January 2027 a promotion to GS-14 needs 52 weeks at GS-13, 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).