Civil Service Pay Scales

The civil service pay scales within the U.S. is referred to as the General Schedule (GS) pay scale. It consists of fifteen grades. GS-1 is the lowest grade, while GS-15 is the highest. Each grade is broken down into ten steps. The pay associated with each grade increases in each step within that particular grade. The primary parameters taken into account when compiling civil service pay scales are, the required experience with respect to a certain grade, and the level of job responsibility. Additionally, a certain percentage is added to the base civil service pay scales, which suffices for the cost of living expenses associated with a certain region or city. This percentage may vary from region to region. Such amendments to the civil service pay scales are brought about so that government sector can compete with the private sector in terms of employee salaries.

How does one determine his/her position in the civil service pay scales? Educational qualifications of an employee, is the primary yardstick with which the better qualified is filtered from the rest. In this view, GS-1 level is the default grade, which requires no special educational qualification. GS-2 grade in the civil service pay scale belongs to employees who possess high school graduation or equivalent qualification. GS-3 and GS-4 require an education level of one and two years above high school level respectively. GS-5 requires an employee to possess 4 academic years above high school or a Bachelor's degree. GS-7 is for employees possessing Bachelor's degree with Superior Academic Achievement (S.A.A) or one academic year of graduate education. The S.A.A is comprised of three aspects associated with graduate education; class standing, the grade point average and honor society membership. Based on the aforementioned items a college graduate possesses, he/she will be qualified to be instated in a relevant pay scale in GS-7 band. GS-9 band is for employees who have Master's or two academic years of progressively higher level graduate education. GS-11 and GS-12 band are available only for research positions. Experience relative to the position can be combined with the educational qualifications so that the employee can be slotted into a fair grade in the civil service pay scales.

The civil service pay scales can be broken down into three distinct stages. GS-1 through 7 are allocated for entry level positions. GS-8 through 12 cater for salary requirements of mid-level positions. GS-13 to 15 are allotted for technical specialists, senior executives, supervisory and policy positions. Typically, progressing through the civil service pay scales takes place based on seniority. However, an employee may be rewarded with a “quality step increase” without considering the time constraint in the civil service pay scales if he/she demonstrates outstanding performance. Progressing between GS grades follows basically the same pattern. Some of the government departments and agencies (e.g. military, aviation) have adopted a banded pay scheme instead of the GS pay scale owing to administrative infeasibilities.