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54-620: GS-15 may refer to: General Schedule (US civil service pay scale) Geobacter [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title formed as a letter–number combination. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GS-15&oldid=932857215 " Category : Letter–number combination disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

108-567: A civil service annuity at retirement. CONUS locality adjustments, however, are counted when computing annuities. Employees stationed in Alaska and Hawaii were formerly considered OCONUS and received a cost of living adjustment, but are being phased into the domestic locality pay system. Note:"Employees of the U.S. Government are not entitled to the foreign earned income exclusion or the foreign housing exclusion/deduction under section 911 because 'foreign earned income' does not include amounts paid by

162-769: A director, who is nominated by the President . The United States Civil Service Commission was created by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The commission was renamed as the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and most of commission's former functions—with the exception of the federal employees appellate function—were assigned to new agencies, with most being assigned to the newly created U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on January 1, 1979, and Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978. On January 1, 1979,

216-468: A given grade and step) regardless of where they worked. This system ignored the growing reality of regional differences in salaries and wages across the United States, and this led to a perception that in many locations federal civil service salaries were increasingly uncompetitive with those in the private sector, thus affecting recruiting and retention efforts by federal agencies. In January 1994,

270-504: A position with a special GS scale does not receive a locality adjustment unless the pay under the special scale is lower than using the locality pay adjustment. Under FEPCA, the United States (excluding its Territories and overseas employees) are divided into locality areas for purposes of determining pay. The locality areas generally follow either Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) or Combined statistical areas (CSAs) but frequently include bordering counties that are not included within

324-399: A prescribed period of service in at least a satisfactory manner. The normal progression is 52 weeks (one year) between steps 1–2, 2–3, and 3–4, then 104 weeks (two years) between steps 4–5, 5–6, and 6–7, and finally 156 weeks (three years) between steps 7–8, 8–9, and 9–10. However, an employee can be rewarded for outstanding work performance via a "quality step increase" ("QSI"), which advances

378-405: A selection from those candidates, generally giving preference to veterans. OPM is also responsible for federal employee retirement applications for FERS and CSRS employees. OPM makes decisions on federal employee regular and disability retirement cases. OPM also oversees FEHB and FEGLI, the health insurance and life insurance programs for Federal employees. However, it does not oversee TSP, which

432-461: Is an independent agency of the United States government that manages the United States federal civil service . The agency provides federal human resources policy, oversight, and support, and tends to healthcare ( FEHB ), life insurance ( FEGLI ), and retirement benefits ( CSRS and FERS , but not TSP ) for federal government employees, retirees, and their dependents. OPM is headed by

486-584: Is calculated as follows (the result of both equations is the same): FEPCA places a cap on the total salary of highly paid employees (mainly those at the higher GS-15 Grade steps) – the total base pay plus locality adjustment cannot exceed the salary for employees under Level IV of the Executive Schedule . The locality pay adjustment is counted as part of the "high-3" salary in calculating Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) annuities, as well as

540-666: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages General Schedule (US civil service pay scale) The remaining 29 percent were paid under other systems such as the Federal Wage System (WG, for federal blue-collar civilian employees), the Senior Executive Service and the Executive Schedule for high-ranking federal employees, and other unique pay schedules used by some agencies such as

594-596: Is higher. The second component of the GS salary, the locality pay adjustment, was introduced in 1994 as part of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA). Prior to FEPCA, all GS employees received the same salary regardless of location, which failed to reflect both the disparity between public sector and private sector pay as well as differences in cost of living in major metropolitan areas. As noted earlier, an employee in

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648-671: Is no equivalency of command or supervisory authority between civilian and military personnel external to the local organization. The "Department of the Army Protocol Precedence List" is developed by the Army Protocol Directorate. Another form of the Army "Precedence List" can be found in Appendix D of DA PAM 600-60: A Guide to Protocol and Etiquette for Official Entertainment. The Department of

702-553: Is not lost; it continues to count towards the waiting period for the next step increase. The QSI provides the employee the benefit of receiving an additional step increase at an earlier date than he or she originally would have without losing any time creditable towards his or her next WGI.) Depending on the agency and the work description, a GS position may provide for advancement within a "career ladder," meaning that an employee performing satisfactorily will advance between GS grades, normally on an annual basis, until he(she) has reached

756-670: Is the "career ladder" for auditors within the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). The traditional "entry level" grade within DCAA is the GS-7 level (some employees come in either at the lower GS-5 level or higher GS-9 or GS-11 levels) and the "career ladder" is GS-7 to GS-9 to GS-11 and finally to GS-12, with the employee expected to advance between grades after one year and to reach the GS-12 level after three years. Beyond

810-408: The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA) introduced a "locality pay adjustment" component to the GS salary structure. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have complained about the methodology used to compute locality adjustments and the projected cost of closing the pay gap (as determined by FEPCA) between federal salaries and those in the private sector. In December 2007,

864-618: The Foreign Service Act . Federal civilian workers based in CONUS do not normally receive housing allowances or government-furnished housing. Also, some civilian personnel stationed overseas do not receive housing allowances; this may include military dependents working in federal civilian positions overseas, military members that left the service while overseas and were hired into an overseas position, and U.S. citizens hired into overseas positions while traveling abroad. In contrast,

918-715: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Foreign Service . Starting in 2009 , some federal employees were also paid under Pay Bands . The GS was enacted into law by the Classification Act of 1949 , which replaced Classification Act of 1923 . The GS is now codified as part of Chapter 53 of Title 5 of the United States Code sections 5331 to 5338 ( 5 U.S.C.   §§ 5331 – 5338 ). The pay scale

972-723: The Chinese Ministry of State Security spy agency obtained access to 22.1 million SF-86 records of US federal employees, contractors, and their friends and family. Representing one of the largest breaches of government data in U.S. history, information that was obtained and exfiltrated in the breach included personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers , as well as names, dates and places of birth, and addresses. New updates regarding this security breach came to light on September 24, 2015. The agency then indicated that additional evidence showed that 5.6 million people's fingerprints were stolen as part of

1026-945: The GS and replace it with various pay systems emphasizing "pay for performance" (i.e., a system in which pay increases are awarded based more on merit and work performance and less on seniority and length of service). The pay structure which enables this is typically known as pay banding . The best known efforts in this area are the pay systems created for the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense (the National Security Personnel System ) in 2002 and 2003, respectively. These efforts were challenged by federal labor unions and other employee groups. Many supervisory and non-bargaining-unit employees, however, were converted from their GS positions into equitable NSPS positions. As part of his fiscal 2007 and 2008 budget proposals, President George W. Bush proposed

1080-476: The GS grade to which their position is classified, their salary will be increased to the higher step. Employees whose salary was increased beyond the GS step 10 amount while under NSPS will be placed on retained pay, meaning they will receive 50% of the annual cost of living increase until the GS table catches up to the level of salary they are earning. United States Office of Personnel Management The United States Office of Personnel Management ( OPM )

1134-461: The GS pay schedule on behalf of other federal agencies. Changes to the GS must normally be authorized by either the president (via Executive Order ) or by Congress (via legislation). Normally, the President directs annual across-the-board pay adjustments (including locality pay adjustments) at the beginning of a calendar year after Congress has passed the annual appropriations legislation for

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1188-414: The GS-12 level, advancements to the higher levels (GS-13, GS-14, and GS-15, most of which are managerial positions) are based on competitive selections. Furthermore, if an employee is promoted to a grade which is not part of the career ladder (such as a promotion to a supervisory position), the employee's salary is set at the step within the higher grade nearest the employee's current salary (but never below

1242-822: The GS-8 to GS-12 range and top-level positions (senior managers, high-level technical specialists, or physicians) are in the GS-13 to GS-15 range. A new GS employee is normally employed in the first step of their assigned GS grade, although the employer has discretion to, as a recruiting incentive, authorize initial appointment at a higher step (other agencies may place the employee at a higher grade). In most professional occupations, entry to mid-level positions are classified at two-grade intervals—that is, an employee would advance from GS-5 to GS-7, then to GS-9 and finally to GS-11, skipping grades 6, 8 and 10. Permanent employees below step 10 in their grade normally earn step increases after serving

1296-506: The General Schedule Increase). Some positions have their own unique GS scales. One notable example being patent examiner positions who can receive a supplement of more than 50% from the standard GS scale. Under the laws governing special GS scales, employees whose positions are covered by those scales earn either the special scale salary, or the standard GS scale salary plus a locality adjustment (see below), whichever

1350-779: The MSA or CSA, with two additional designated areas for the states of Alaska and Hawaii, and finally a "Rest of U.S." which consists of areas within the United States that are not designed as a separate locality area; this area receives the smallest locality pay adjustment. The geographical definition of locality areas is subject to periodic review, and new or revised areas generally are recommended one year prior to actual implementation (to allow for review and public comment). Salary adjustments for employees in other U.S. Territories and for overseas employees are separate from this adjustment. As of 2024, there are 58 designated areas (including Alaska, Hawaii, and "Rest of U.S."): The total pay with locality

1404-708: The Navy "Civilian and Military Pay Grades" list can be found in Annex D of OPNAVINST 1710.7A: Social Usage and Protocol. The Department of the Air Force "Military and Civilian Rank Equivalents" can be found in Attachment 10 of AFI 34-1201. Consolidated DOD lists have been compiled by JMAR. The equivalency of GS and military ranks with respect to financial accounting has different rules than those treating protocol. In recent years, there have been several attempts to eliminate

1458-563: The Office of Personnel Management was established with the dissolution of the U.S. Civil Service Commission following the passage and signing of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 into law by then President Jimmy Carter (43 FR 36037 , 92  Stat.   3783 ). The United States Office of Government Ethics , responsible for directing executive branch policies relating to the prevention of conflicts of interest on

1512-453: The President's Pay Agent reported that an average locality pay adjustment of 36.89% would be required to reach the target set by FEPCA (to close the computed pay gap between federal and non-federal pay to a disparity of 5%). By comparison, in calendar year 2007, the average locality pay adjustment actually authorized was 16.88%. As a result, FEPCA has never been fully implemented. The United States Office of Personnel Management administers

1566-507: The U.S. Government as an employee. But see Other Employment, later" Protocol Precedence Lists for civilian and military personnel have been developed by each of the Department of Defense organizations to establish the order of government, military, and civic leaders for diplomatic, ceremonial, and social events. Protocol is a code of established guidelines on proper etiquette. Precedence is defined as priority in place, time, or rank. In

1620-579: The across-the-board adjustments to the GS (but not locality pay) are determined according to the rise in the cost of employment as measured by the Department of Labor 's Employment Cost Index , which does not necessarily correlate to the better-known Consumer Price Index , which tracks consumer prices. The GS is separated into 15 grades (GS-1, GS-2, etc. up to GS-15); each grade is separated into 10 steps. At one time, there were also three GS "supergrades" (GS-16, GS-17 and GS-18); these were eliminated under

1674-463: The appearance of independence and neutrality in the administrative law system. While technically employees of the agencies they work for, administrative law judges (or ALJs) are hired exclusively by the OPM, effectively removing any discretionary employment procedures from the other agencies. The OPM uses a rigorous selection process which ranks the top three candidates for each ALJ vacancy, and then makes

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1728-503: The baseline for individuals having a percentage of salary deducted for deposit into the Thrift Savings Plan . Personnel based outside the United States (e.g. U.S. territories, foreign overseas areas) receive a lower locality adjustment (4.76% for 2010). However, they may also receive certain non-taxable allowances such as cost-of-living allowances, post allowances and housing allowances in accordance with other laws, such as

1782-411: The bill as a response to accusations of fraud and concerns about security clearance background investigations. The bill would fund the expenses for investigations, oversight activities and audits from the revolving fund. The bill was in response to a find that between 2002 and 2012, OPM's revolving fund had tripled, totaling over $ 2 billion, or 90% of OPM's budget. In February 2014, President Obama signed

1836-497: The bill into law. The fund's history goes back to the early 1980s, where it was used for two main activities: training and background investigations for government personnel. Between 2018 and 2019, as part of a larger initiative to restructure the executive branch, President Donald Trump (R) submitted a proposal to congress to merge OPM into the General Services Administration (GSA) while returning

1890-571: The completion of an "independent report" issued by the federally-chartered National Academy of Public Administration was added to the 1,120 page bill S-1790, a.k.a. the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 . According to its website, the mission of the OPM is "recruiting, retaining and honoring a world-class force to serve the American people." The OPM is partially responsible for maintaining

1944-399: The current salary), plus additional steps to reward the employee for the promotion and to account for the increased responsibilities that go along with the new position. As an example (and not including locality adjustments), an employee at GS-12 Step 10 (base salary $ 96,770) being promoted to a GS-13 position would initially have his/her salary set at GS-13 Step 4 (base salary $ 97,373, as it is

1998-429: The designated locality pay areas and the annual comparability adjustment for each area, as well as an adjustment for all other workers outside these areas, referred to as "Rest of U.S.". The council's recommendations are transmitted to the President's Pay Agent (also created by FEPCA), which then establishes, modifies, or disestablishes individual locality pay areas and makes the final recommendation on pay adjustments to

2052-474: The employee one step within grade regardless of time at the previous step. (A QSI does not affect the timing of an employee’s next regular within-grade increase, unless the QSI places the employee in step 4 or step 7 of his or her grade. In these cases, the employee must complete the full waiting period for the new step, 104 weeks for steps 4-6 or 156 weeks for steps 7-9. However, the time an employee has already waited

2106-533: The eventual elimination of the GS to be replaced by a pay-for-performance concept throughout the Executive Branch of the government. The Office of Management and Budget prepared draft legislation, known as the "Working for America Act", but as of January 2008 Congress has not implemented the proposal. President Barack Obama signed the legislation repealing the NSPS system on October 29, 2009. Under

2160-455: The federal government. Under FEPCA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts annual surveys of wages and salaries paid to non-federal workers in designated locality pay areas. Surveys are used to determine the disparity, if any, between federal and non-federal pay in a given locality pay area. The Federal Salary Council (created by FEPCA) prepares recommendations concerning the composition of

2214-774: The federal personnel policy-making components under the direct authority of the Executive Office of the President of the United States to the Office of Management and Budget in the White House . House Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations under the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was the fiercest critic of the proposal. During a congressional hearing, Connolly claimed: "The administration wants to take over

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2268-415: The government, military and diplomatic corps, precedence among individuals' positions plays a substantial role. Equivalency between civilian pay grades and military rank is only for protocol purposes and informally for delegated supervisory responsibilities. While the authority of military rank extends across services and within each service, the same does not exist for civilian employees and therefore, there

2322-425: The hacks, more than five times the 1.1 million originally estimated. The total number of individuals whose records were disclosed in whole or part, including Social Security numbers and addresses, remained at 21.5 million. In July 2013, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) introduced the Office of Personnel Management Inspector General Act. The bill would increase oversight of OPM's revolving fund. Farenthold introduced

2376-466: The locality pay adjustment. The increases between steps for Grades GS-1 and GS-2 varies between the steps; for Grades GS-3 through GS-15 the increases between the steps are the same within the grade but increase as the grade increases. The table is revised effective January of each year (officially, the first full pay period which begins in January) to reflect the basic cost of living adjustment (known as

2430-462: The merit policy-making functions and put them into the highly politicized environment of the White House itself, away from direct congressional oversight and inspector general review." Political pressure against the proposal peaked when a provision barring the President from transferring any function, responsibility, authority, service, system or program that is assigned in law until 6 months after

2484-411: The nearest salary to GS-12 Step 10 but not lower than it), and then have his/her salary adjusted to a higher step (such as GS-13 Step 6, having a base salary of $ 103,275). Salaries under the GS have two components: a base salary and a "locality pay adjustment". The base salary is based on a table compiled by Office of Personnel Management (the 2024 table is shown below), and is used as the baseline for

2538-437: The part of Federal executive branch officers and employees, was formerly a part of OPM, until being spun off as an independent agency in 1989. In 1996 the investigation branch of the OPM was privatized, and USIS was formed. In 2014, after several scandals, OPM declined to renew its contract with USIS and brought background investigations back in house under the short-lived National Background Investigations Bureau . In 2019,

2592-401: The president, who may either accept the agent's recommendations or (in effect) reject them through the submission of an alternative pay plan. FEPCA also provides for an automatic annual across-the-board adjustment of GS pay rates. A common misconception is that the annual federal pay adjustments are determined according to cost of living fluctuations and other regional considerations. In fact,

2646-612: The provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and replaced by the Senior Executive Service and the more recent Senior Level (non-supervisory) pay scale. Most positions in the competitive service are paid according to the GS. In addition, many positions in the excepted service use the GS as a basis for setting pay rates. Some positions in the excepted service use the grade designator "GG"—for example, "GG-12" or "GG-13". The GG pay rates are generally identical to published GS pay rates. The GS-1 through GS-7 range generally marks entry-level positions, while mid-level positions are in

2700-651: The responsibility for conducting federal background checks changed hands again when NBIB was dissolved and its functions given to the Defense Security Service, part of the Department of Defense , which was reorganized into the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency for the purpose. In April 2015, hackers working on behalf of the Jiangsu State Security Department , a provincial branch of

2754-399: The tax-free allowances paid during overseas assignments (especially the housing allowances) are generally considered to be an incentive to serve overseas, as they can be quite generous. While this situation may be advantageous to some personnel during their assignment overseas, these tax-free allowances are not considered to be part of one's salary, therefore they are not counted when computing

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2808-417: The terms of the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, Public Law 111-84, all employees under NSPS must be converted back to their previous pay system not later than January 1, 2012. The law also mandates that no employees lose pay as a result of this conversion. In order to ensure this, a set of conversion rules has been developed. In most cases, if an employee's current NSPS salary falls between two step levels of

2862-414: The top GS grade for that job (which represents full performance). Advancement beyond the top grade (to either a specialized technical position or to a managerial position) would be subject to competitive selection. Not all positions, however, provide for such a "career ladder," thus requiring employees who seek advancement to consider other career paths, either within their agency or outside it. An example

2916-481: Was originally created with the purpose of keeping federal salaries in line with equivalent private sector jobs. Although never the intent, the GS pay scale does a good job of ensuring equal pay for equal work by reducing pay gaps between men, women, and minorities, in accordance with another, separate law, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 . Prior to January 1994, GS personnel were generally paid the same amount (for

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