Department of Defense Pay Scales

Hundreds of thousands of civilians work for the Department of Defense.

The U.S. Department of Defense employs over 700,000 civilians in a wide range of fields, including engineering, finance, logistics, and the law. Positions range from entry to executive level and follow the federal General Services (GS) pay scale.

Pay Grades

Every DoD position has an associated pay grade, denoted by the letters GS and a number. The GS-1 pay grade starts at an annual salary of $17,803 (as of 2010), while the GS-15 pay grade starts at $99,628.

Pay Steps

Steps correspond to "time in grade", and are how the DoD awards pay raises. After 52 weeks, a step 1 employee is promoted to step 2. Steps 3 and 4 also take 52 weeks to reach. Steps 5, 6, and 7 take 104 weeks, and steps 8, 9 and 10 require 156 weeks.

Geographic Pay Adjustments

Every GS salary is adjusted for the employee's area of residence. More expensive cities confer a larger geographic adjustment. A DoD employee in Pittsburgh receives a geographic adjustment of 16.37% over base pay, while an employee in San Francisco receives an adjustment of 35.15 percent.

References

• Careers in National Defense
• Civilian Expeditionary Workforce: Careers
• FedJobs: 2010 General Pay Scale