58 locality pay areasPage last changed 2026-10-22
GS-3 pay scale and salary 2026
A GS-3 earns $27,708 to $36,024 in base pay in 2026; with locality pay, from $32,435 at step 1 in Rest of U.S. to $52,718 at step 10 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA.
Who is on GS-3
| Employees on GS-3 | 3,645 employees, 0.28% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade) |
|---|---|
| At GS-3 or higher | 99.96% of them |
| Median full-time pay, locality included | $39,884, the median of the 1,105 full-time GS-3 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 70.6% of the grade’s 1,565 full-time employees |
| Median wage, all U.S. occupations | $50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour |
| Supervisors or managers | 0% |
| At step 10 | 14% |
| Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act | 4% |
| Law enforcement officers | GL-3 step 1 is $33,252, 20.0% more than GS-3 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale) |
GS-3 is the third-least common of the fifteen grades, with 3,645 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Sales Store Clerical (2091), Agricultural Commodity Aid (1981) and Plant Protection Technician (0421), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 1,446.
Every step of GS-3 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.
99.96% of GS employees are at GS-3 or higher
The median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-3, $39,884, is $11,096 below the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations; 3,645 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-3.
GS-3 reaches the U.S. median hourly wage only where locality pay is high
$13.28 to $17.26 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and only with more locality pay than Rest of U.S. does it pass the national median of $24.51 an hour, at step 10 in 1 of the 58 areas.
Military equivalent of GS-3: E-1 to E-3
Enlisted grades E-1 to E-3, category I, are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-3 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-1 and GS-2.
| Military grade | E-1 to E-3 |
|---|---|
| Geneva Conventions category | I, enlisted |
| Other GS grades in the same row | GS-1, GS-2 |
GS-3 base pay, step by step
| Step | Base rate | Hourly | Increase | Wait (weeks) | Total (years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | $27,708 | $13.28 | — | — | 0 |
| Step 2 | $28,632 | $13.72 | +$924 | 52 | 1 |
| Step 3 | $29,556 | $14.16 | +$924 | 52 | 2 |
| Step 4 | $30,480 | $14.60 | +$924 | 52 | 3 |
| Step 5 | $31,404 | $15.05 | +$924 | 104 | 5 |
| Step 6 | $32,328 | $15.49 | +$924 | 104 | 7 |
| Step 7 | $33,252 | $15.93 | +$924 | 104 | 9 |
| Step 8 | $34,176 | $16.38 | +$924 | 156 | 12 |
| Step 9 | $35,100 | $16.82 | +$924 | 156 | 15 |
| Step 10 | $36,024 | $17.26 | +$924 | 156 | 18 |
GS-3 step 5 in every locality pay area
What a GS-3 earns where you are
GS-3, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC
$42,063
Promotion from GS-3 to GS-4
| At GS-3 | Lands on GS-4 | Base increase |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Step 1 | +$3,395 |
| Step 2 | Step 1 | +$2,471 |
| Step 3 | Step 2 | +$2,584 |
| Step 4 | Step 3 | +$2,697 |
| Step 5 | Step 4 | +$2,810 |
| Step 6 | Step 4 | +$1,886 |
| Step 7 | Step 5 | +$1,999 |
| Step 8 | Step 6 | +$2,112 |
| Step 9 | Step 7 | +$2,225 |
| Step 10 | Step 8 | +$2,338 |
No time-in-grade minimum applies to a promotion to GS-4: 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).