GS-2 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $25,393 Base, Up to $46,760

Who is on GS-2

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-2	245 employees, 0.02% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-2 or higher	99.98% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	Not given: OPM publishes the pay of only 73 full-time GS-2 employees
Median wage, all U.S. occupations	$50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour
Supervisors or managers	0%
At step 10	11%
Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act	1%
Law enforcement officers	The GL table begins at grade 3 and does not apply here

GS-2 is the second-least common of the fifteen grades, with 245 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Biological Science Technician (0404), Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant (0303) and Social Science Aid and Technician (0102), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 77.

Every step of GS-2 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.

99.98% of GS employees are at GS-2 or higher

Even the top step of GS-2 with the highest locality pay, $46,760, is below the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations; 245 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-2.

No step of GS-2 reaches the U.S. median hourly wage

$12.17 to $15.31 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-2: E-1 to E-3

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

GS-2 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	$25,393	$12.17	—	—	0
Step 2	$25,997	$12.46	+$604	52	1
Step 3	$26,839	$12.86	+$842	52	2
Step 4	$27,550	$13.20	+$711	52	3
Step 5	$27,858	$13.35	+$308	104	5
Step 6	$28,677	$13.74	+$819	104	7
Step 7	$29,496	$14.13	+$819	104	9
Step 8	$30,315	$14.53	+$819	156	12
Step 9	$31,134	$14.92	+$819	156	15
Step 10	$31,953	$15.31	+$819	156	18

GS-2 steps are not evenly spaced: step 5 adds only $308 and step 3 adds $842, while from GS-3 up every step of a grade adds the same amount.

GS-2 step 5 in every locality pay area

$32,611 in Rest of U.S. to $40,767 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$8,156** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $33,873, worth $38,954 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	$40,767	110.4	$36,919
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$38,430	112.6	$34,141
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$38,018	113.6	$33,477
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$37,608	98.6	$38,131
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$37,313	108.9	$34,269
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$37,252	111.9	$33,294
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$36,934	108.3	$34,114
8	State of Alaska	$36,873	102.4	$36,023
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$36,795	102.7	$35,812
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$36,653	111.1	$32,981
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$36,455	103.6	$35,190
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$36,360	105.8	$34,373
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$36,149	106.7	$33,889
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$35,970	100.3	$35,863
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$35,934	102.6	$35,039
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$35,552	104.8	$33,917
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$35,452	103.1	$34,389
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$35,137	105.4	$33,330
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$34,731	114.2	$30,424
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$34,485	100.1	$34,465
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$34,112	103.3	$33,017
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$34,104	96.9	$35,182
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$34,101	95.8	$35,580
24	Richmond, VA	$34,065	97.9	$34,811
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$34,054	98.2	$34,693
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$34,051	93.9	$36,254
27	State of Hawaii	$34,045	110.0	$30,964
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$34,029	95.5	$35,644
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$33,967	95.4	$35,616
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$33,962	93.1	$36,490
31	Laredo, TX	$33,873	87.0	$38,954
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$33,825	92.7	$36,491
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$33,717	94.7	$35,615
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$33,644	99.6	$33,791
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$33,527	98.1	$34,188
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$33,471	100.7	$33,236
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$33,438	95.1	$35,165
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$33,338	97.3	$34,246
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$33,310	100.2	$33,239
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$33,276	100.9	$32,963
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$33,271	98.7	$33,726
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$33,229	96.9	$34,293
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$33,143	92.5	$35,814
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$33,132	89.1	$37,194
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$33,095	97.9	$33,791
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$33,090	94.7	$34,936
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$32,964	95.5	$34,501
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$32,939	91.6	$35,942
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$32,937	91.9	$35,836
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$32,914	95.7	$34,394
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$32,875	91.7	$35,850
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$32,853	100.0	$32,851
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$32,839	97.0	$33,842
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$32,781	100.3	$32,668
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$32,775	102.2	$32,083
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$32,769	92.7	$35,361
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$32,739	101.0	$32,410
58	Rest of U.S.	$32,611	—	—

What a GS-2 earns where you are

GS-2, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$37,313

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-2 to GS-3

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-2	Lands on GS-3	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$2,315
Step 2	Step 1	+$1,711
Step 3	Step 2	+$1,793
Step 4	Step 3	+$2,006
Step 5	Step 3	+$1,698
Step 6	Step 4	+$1,803
Step 7	Step 5	+$1,908
Step 8	Step 6	+$2,013
Step 9	Step 7	+$2,118
Step 10	Step 8	+$2,223

No time-in-grade minimum applies to a promotion to GS-3: 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).