58 locality pay areasPage last changed 2026-10-22
GS-9 pay scale and salary 2026
A GS-9 earns $52,727 to $68,549 in base pay in 2026; with locality pay, from $61,722 at step 1 in Rest of U.S. to $100,315 at step 10 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA.
Who is on GS-9
| Employees on GS-9 | 106,568 employees, 8.3% of the 1,279,389 on the General Schedule (95 GS records carry no grade) |
|---|---|
| At GS-9 or higher | 77.8% of them |
| Median full-time pay, locality included | $73,600, the median of the 55,239 full-time GS-9 employees whose pay OPM publishes, 53.0% of the grade’s 104,142 full-time employees |
| Median wage, all U.S. occupations | $50,980 a year, $24.51 an hour |
| Supervisors or managers | 5% |
| At step 10 | 11% |
| Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act | 23% |
| Law enforcement officers | GL-9 step 1 is $54,485, 3.3% more than GS-9 step 1, with the same locality percentage on top (the GL pay scale) |
GS-9 is the fifth-most common of the fifteen grades, with 106,568 employees in May 2026; the largest occupations are Miscellaneous Administration and Program (0301), General Legal and Kindred Administration (0901) and Consumer Safety Inspection (1862), and the Department of Defense employs the most of them, 40,714.
Up to step 4 a GS-9 is paid time and a half for overtime. From step 5 the hourly rate is above that of GS-10 step 1, and for an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (the rule, and who it covers) the overtime hour is capped at one and a half times the GS-10 step 1 rate: the premium falls from 45.8 percent at step 5 to 27.1 percent at step 10 in Rest of U.S.
77.8% of GS employees are at GS-9 or higher
106,568 of the 1,279,389 General Schedule employees in May 2026 are on GS-9, and the median full-time pay OPM publishes for GS-9, $73,600, is 1.4 times the national median wage of $50,980 for all occupations.
Every step of GS-9 pays above the U.S. median hourly wage
$25.26 to $32.85 an hour in base pay, from step 1 to step 10, and with Rest of U.S. locality pay even step 1, $29.57, is above the national median of $24.51 an hour.
Military equivalent of GS-9: O-2
Military grade O-2 — a First Lieutenant in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Navy and Coast Guard — and warrant officer grades W-3 and W-4 are the ranks DoD treats as equivalent to GS-9 on Geneva Conventions identification cards, as it does GS-8.
| Military grade | O-2 |
|---|---|
| Warrant officer grades | W-3 and W-4 |
| Geneva Conventions category | III, company grade officer |
| Army, Air Force, Marine Corps | First Lieutenant |
| Navy, Coast Guard | Lieutenant Junior Grade |
| Other GS grades in the same row | GS-8 |
GS-9 base pay, step by step
| Step | Base rate | Hourly | Increase | Wait (weeks) | Total (years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | $52,727 | $25.26 | — | — | 0 |
| Step 2 | $54,485 | $26.11 | +$1,758 | 52 | 1 |
| Step 3 | $56,243 | $26.95 | +$1,758 | 52 | 2 |
| Step 4 | $58,001 | $27.79 | +$1,758 | 52 | 3 |
| Step 5 | $59,759 | $28.63 | +$1,758 | 104 | 5 |
| Step 6 | $61,517 | $29.48 | +$1,758 | 104 | 7 |
| Step 7 | $63,275 | $30.32 | +$1,758 | 104 | 9 |
| Step 8 | $65,033 | $31.16 | +$1,758 | 156 | 12 |
| Step 9 | $66,791 | $32.00 | +$1,758 | 156 | 15 |
| Step 10 | $68,549 | $32.85 | +$1,758 | 156 | 18 |
Who qualifies at GS-9
Under OPM’s qualification standard for administrative and management positions, GS-9 takes a master’s or equivalent graduate degree, 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to one, or an LL.B. or J.D. if related; or, instead of education, 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-7. Equivalent combinations of education and experience also qualify.
Each occupation has its own standard, and the qualifications section of a vacancy announcement is what decides. Source: OPM, General Schedule Qualification Standards, administrative and management positions.
GS-9 step 5 in every locality pay area
What a GS-9 earns where you are
GS-9, step 5 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PAWashington, DC
$80,041
Promotion from GS-9 to GS-10
| At GS-9 | Lands on GS-10 | Base increase |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Step 1 | +$5,337 |
| Step 2 | Step 1 | +$3,579 |
| Step 3 | Step 2 | +$3,756 |
| Step 4 | Step 3 | +$3,933 |
| Step 5 | Step 4 | +$4,110 |
| Step 6 | Step 5 | +$4,287 |
| Step 7 | Step 6 | +$4,464 |
| Step 8 | Step 7 | +$4,641 |
| Step 9 | Step 8 | +$4,818 |
| Step 10 | Step 9 | +$4,995 |
Until 18 January 2027 a promotion to GS-10 needs 52 weeks at GS-9 in a line of work that moves one grade at a time (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). Where the work moves two grades at a time, as GS-5, 7, 9 and 11 professional ladders do, 52 weeks at GS-9 opens GS-11 directly: by the same rule a GS-9 step 5 lands on GS-11 step 1, $4,036 more in base pay.