GS-14 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $107,446 Base, Up to $197,200

Who is on GS-14

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-14	122,910 employees, 9.6% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-14 or higher	13.7% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$165,469, the median of the 77,301 full-time GS-14 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 63.6% of the grade’s 121,499 full-time employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	40%
At step 10	15%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	98%
Law enforcement officers	There is no GL table at GS-14: 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-14 is the fourth-most common of the fifteen grades, with 122,910 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Management and Program Analysis (0343), Information Technology Management (2210) and General Attorney (0905), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 23,964.

40% of them are supervisors or managers, the second-highest share of any grade.

15% have reached step 10, the top of the grade, the second-highest share of any grade.

At every step of GS-14 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-14 is paid more than the cap from step 1.

The $197,200 statutory ceiling reaches GS-14 in one area only: in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA it holds step 9 and every step above it, 2 of the ten.

Only 13.7% of GS employees are at GS-14 or higher

The median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-14, $165,469, is 3.2 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations; 122,910 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-14.

The first step of GS-14 already doubles the U.S. median hourly wage

$51.48 to $66.93 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and even step 1 with Rest of U.S. locality pay, $60.27, is 2.5 times the national median of $24.51 an hour.

Military equivalent of GS-14: 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-14 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-13.

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-13

GS-14 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	$107,446	$51.48	—	—	0
Step 2	$111,028	$53.20	+$3,582	52	1
Step 3	$114,610	$54.92	+$3,582	52	2
Step 4	$118,192	$56.63	+$3,582	52	3
Step 5	$121,774	$58.35	+$3,582	104	5
Step 6	$125,356	$60.07	+$3,582	104	7
Step 7	$128,938	$61.78	+$3,582	104	9
Step 8	$132,520	$63.50	+$3,582	156	12
Step 9	$136,102	$65.21	+$3,582	156	15
Step 10	$139,684	$66.93	+$3,582	156	18

GS-14 step 5 in every locality pay area

$142,549 in Rest of U.S. to $178,204 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$35,655** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $148,065, worth $170,276 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	$178,204	110.4	$161,383
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$167,987	112.6	$149,238
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$166,185	113.6	$146,333
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$164,395	98.6	$166,680
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$163,104	108.9	$149,796
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$162,836	111.9	$145,536
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$161,448	108.3	$149,122
8	State of Alaska	$161,180	102.4	$157,465
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$160,839	102.7	$156,540
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$160,218	111.1	$144,168
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$159,353	103.6	$153,823
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$158,939	105.8	$150,251
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$158,014	106.7	$148,133
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$157,235	100.3	$156,768
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$157,076	102.6	$153,164
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$155,408	104.8	$148,259
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$154,970	103.1	$150,325
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$153,594	105.4	$145,696
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$151,816	114.2	$132,991
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$150,744	100.1	$150,657
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$149,112	103.3	$144,326
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$149,076	96.9	$153,786
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$149,064	95.8	$155,528
24	Richmond, VA	$148,905	97.9	$152,164
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$148,857	98.2	$151,652
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$148,844	93.9	$158,474
27	State of Hawaii	$148,820	110.0	$135,351
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$148,747	95.5	$155,807
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$148,479	95.4	$155,687
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$148,455	93.1	$159,506
31	Laredo, TX	$148,065	87.0	$170,276
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$147,858	92.7	$159,512
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$147,383	94.7	$155,679
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$147,066	99.6	$147,707
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$146,555	98.1	$149,445
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$146,311	100.7	$145,284
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$146,165	95.1	$153,716
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$145,727	97.3	$149,697
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$145,605	100.2	$145,293
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$145,459	100.9	$144,092
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$145,435	98.7	$147,425
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$145,252	96.9	$149,905
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$144,875	92.5	$156,549
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$144,826	89.1	$162,582
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$144,668	97.9	$147,709
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$144,643	94.7	$152,712
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$144,095	95.5	$150,812
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$143,986	91.6	$157,114
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$143,973	91.9	$156,644
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$143,876	95.7	$150,347
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$143,705	91.7	$156,710
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$143,608	100.0	$143,601
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$143,547	97.0	$147,933
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$143,291	100.3	$142,797
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$143,267	102.2	$140,241
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$143,243	92.7	$154,572
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$143,109	101.0	$141,672
58	Rest of U.S.	$142,549	—	—

What a GS-14 earns where you are

GS-14, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$163,104

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-14 to GS-15

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-14	Lands on GS-15	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$18,938
Step 2	Step 1	+$15,356
Step 3	Step 1	+$11,774
Step 4	Step 1	+$8,192
Step 5	Step 2	+$8,823
Step 6	Step 3	+$9,454
Step 7	Step 4	+$10,085
Step 8	Step 5	+$10,716
Step 9	Step 6	+$11,347
Step 10	Step 6	+$7,765

Until 18 January 2027 a promotion to GS-15 needs 52 weeks at GS-14, 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).