GS-4 Pay Scale & Salary 2026: $31,103 Base, Up to $59,174

Who is on GS-4

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-4	13,765 employees, 1.1% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade)
At GS-4 or higher	99.68% of them
Median full-time pay, locality included	$43,693, the median of the 4,557 full-time GS-4 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 64.2% of the grade’s 7,099 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	9%
Law enforcement officers	GL-4 step 1 is $37,325, 20.0% more than GS-4 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale)

GS-4 is the fifth-least common of the fifteen grades, with 13,765 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant (0303), General Business and Industry (1101) and Education and Training Technician (1702), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 5,368.

Every step of GS-4 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.

99.68% of GS employees are at GS-4 or higher

The median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-4, $43,693, is $7,287 below the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations; 13,765 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-4.

GS-4 reaches the U.S. median hourly wage only where locality pay is high

$14.90 to $19.38 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 17 of the 58 areas.

Military equivalent of GS-4: E-4

Enlisted grade E-4, category I, is the rank DoD treats as equivalent to GS-4 on Geneva Conventions identification cards.

Source: DoD Instruction 1000.01, Table 2 (what it is for, and its limits). This is not a pay equivalence.
Military grade	E-4
Geneva Conventions category	I, enlisted
Other GS grades in the same row	none

GS-4 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	$31,103	$14.90	—	—	0
Step 2	$32,140	$15.40	+$1,037	52	1
Step 3	$33,177	$15.90	+$1,037	52	2
Step 4	$34,214	$16.39	+$1,037	52	3
Step 5	$35,251	$16.89	+$1,037	104	5
Step 6	$36,288	$17.39	+$1,037	104	7
Step 7	$37,325	$17.88	+$1,037	104	9
Step 8	$38,362	$18.38	+$1,037	156	12
Step 9	$39,399	$18.88	+$1,037	156	15
Step 10	$40,436	$19.38	+$1,037	156	18

GS-4 step 5 in every locality pay area

$41,265 in Rest of U.S. to $51,586 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA, **$10,321** apart. Best off after prices: Laredo, TX, $42,862, worth $49,292 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	$51,586	110.4	$46,717
2	New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA	$48,629	112.6	$43,202
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA	$48,107	113.6	$42,360
4	Houston-The Woodlands, TX	$47,589	98.6	$48,251
5	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA	$47,215	108.9	$43,363
6	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$47,138	111.9	$42,130
7	Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT-ME-VT	$46,736	108.3	$43,168
8	State of Alaska	$46,658	102.4	$45,583
9	Hartford-East Hartford, CT-MA	$46,560	102.7	$45,316
10	Seattle-Tacoma, WA	$46,380	111.1	$41,734
11	Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	$46,129	103.6	$44,528
12	Denver-Aurora, CO	$46,010	105.8	$43,495
13	Sacramento-Roseville, CA-NV	$45,742	106.7	$42,882
14	Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI	$45,516	100.3	$45,381
15	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$45,470	102.6	$44,338
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI	$44,987	104.8	$42,918
17	Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK	$44,860	103.1	$43,515
18	Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA	$44,462	105.4	$42,176
19	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$43,947	114.2	$38,498
20	Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL	$43,637	100.1	$43,612
21	Phoenix-Mesa, AZ	$43,165	103.3	$41,780
22	Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI	$43,154	96.9	$44,518
23	Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY	$43,151	95.8	$45,022
24	Richmond, VA	$43,105	97.9	$44,049
25	Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC	$43,091	98.2	$43,900
26	Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH-PA	$43,087	93.9	$45,875
27	State of Hawaii	$43,080	110.0	$39,181
28	Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH	$43,059	95.5	$45,103
29	Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN	$42,982	95.4	$45,069
30	Huntsville-Decatur, AL-TN	$42,974	93.1	$46,173
31	Laredo, TX	$42,862	87.0	$49,292
32	Dayton-Springfield-Kettering, OH	$42,802	92.7	$46,176
33	Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV	$42,664	94.7	$45,066
34	Albany-Schenectady, NY-MA	$42,573	99.6	$42,759
35	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	$42,425	98.1	$43,262
36	Colorado Springs, CO	$42,354	100.7	$42,057
37	St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL	$42,312	95.1	$44,498
38	Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC	$42,185	97.3	$43,334
39	Las Vegas-Henderson, NV-AZ	$42,150	100.2	$42,060
40	Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT	$42,107	100.9	$41,711
41	Harrisburg-Lebanon, PA	$42,100	98.7	$42,676
42	Tucson-Nogales, AZ	$42,047	96.9	$43,394
43	Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS	$41,938	92.5	$45,317
44	Davenport-Moline, IA-IL	$41,924	89.1	$47,064
45	Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC	$41,878	97.9	$42,758
46	San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall, TX	$41,871	94.7	$44,207
47	Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM	$41,713	95.5	$43,658
48	Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL	$41,681	91.6	$45,481
49	Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA	$41,677	91.9	$45,345
50	Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN	$41,649	95.7	$43,522
51	Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA	$41,600	91.7	$45,365
52	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$41,572	100.0	$41,570
53	Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY	$41,554	97.0	$42,824
54	Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID	$41,480	100.3	$41,337
55	Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA	$41,473	102.2	$40,597
56	Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX	$41,466	92.7	$44,745
57	Reno-Fernley, NV	$41,427	101.0	$41,011
58	Rest of U.S.	$41,265	—	—

What a GS-4 earns where you are

GS-4, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC

$47,215

Locality pay area

Grade

Step

Promotion from GS-4 to GS-5

By the two-step rule; the step clock restarts (this row on the promotion calculator).
At GS-4	Lands on GS-5	Base increase
Step 1	Step 1	+$3,696
Step 2	Step 1	+$2,659
Step 3	Step 2	+$2,782
Step 4	Step 3	+$2,905
Step 5	Step 4	+$3,028
Step 6	Step 5	+$3,151
Step 7	Step 5	+$2,114
Step 8	Step 6	+$2,237
Step 9	Step 7	+$2,360
Step 10	Step 8	+$2,483

No time-in-grade minimum applies to a promotion to GS-5: 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).