President Biden has confirmed via executive order (EO) that 2023 General Schedule (GS) pay scales will rise by an average of 4.6%. This is the highest increase in nearly two decades.
Most GS employees are also eligible for locality pay, covering 55 geographic areas, which are based on surveys of pay levels for non-federal workers in a specific geographic area. This is to account for the different cost of living standards in different areas of the country.
For areas that are not covered by a specific locality pay area, the “REST OF UNITED STATES“ locality pay chart is used. The rest of the US GS pay scale table is shown below, which incorporates the 4.1% GS base pay increase and locality payment adjustment of 16.5%.
This brings the total pay increase for this locality pay table to 4.37%, around 0.23% below the average 2023 GS pay adjustment.
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The General Schedule (GS) is a system used by the federal government to classify and pay its employees. The GS system has 15 grades, ranging from GS-1 (the lowest) to GS-15 (the highest), and within each grade are steps ranging from 1 to 10, worth approximately 3% of the salary.
The pay adjustments above will take place from the first pay period beginning on or after Jan 4, 2023, which is Jan 15, 2023 for the biweekly pay period cycle.