Federal pay raise 2026: what the 1 % gave each grade, step and area
Pick your grade, step and area: the calculator compares the official 2025 and 2026 rates and gives the gain per paycheck.
Your 2026 raise, GS-11 step 5
+$965
$95,878 in 2025, $96,843 in 2026: 1.01 %.
| 2025 annual rate | $95,878 |
| 2026 annual rate | $96,843 |
| Per biweekly paycheck | +$37 |
| Locality percentage | 33.94 % both years |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · read on opm.gov, ecfr.gov and ssa.gov · not an official determination
General Schedule employees received a 1 % raise in 2026. Executive Order 14368, signed on December 18, 2025 and published on December 23, 2025, raised the base table by 1 % and kept every one of the 58 locality percentages at its 2025 level. The new rates took effect on the first day of the first pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2026, which for most agencies was January 11, 2026. Because locality pay is a percentage of the base rate, every locality rate also rose by about 1 %: a GS-11 step 5 in Washington went from $95,878 to $96,843, $965 more a year or about $37 per biweekly paycheck. The order also allowed OPM to raise certain law enforcement personnel by up to 3.8 % in total. Employees held at the $197,200 cap gained only the rise of the cap.
The legal path to 1 %
The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act sets a formula for each January: an across-the-board raise equal to the rise in the Employment Cost Index minus half a point, plus locality payments meant to close the gap with non-federal pay. The formula almost always produces large numbers, and every year the President uses the authority of 5 U.S.C. 5303(b) and 5304a to send Congress an alternative plan instead. For 2026, the alternative pay plan letter of August 28, 2025 announced 1 % with no locality increase. Congress did not pass a different figure, and Executive Order 14368 put the plan into effect. OPM then sent agencies its pay memo, CPM 2025-18, and the tables followed; the formal notice of the January 2026 schedules appeared in the Federal Register on February 3, 2026.
What it means for each cell
Every base rate was multiplied by 1.01 and rounded to the dollar. Locality rates were then rebuilt from the new base rates with the 2025 percentages. The result is a raise of almost exactly 1 % in every one of the 8,700 cells of the 58 tables, with two exceptions. Cells already held at the cap in 2025 moved only to the new cap. And GS-1 to GS-4 cells paid from special table 001M followed that table, not the locality rule. The largest gain in dollars is $8,910 a year.
| Grade and area | 2025 | 2026 | Gain per year | Per paycheck |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS-7 step 1, Rest of U.S. | $49,960 | $50,460 | $500 | $19.23 |
| GS-11 step 5, Washington DC | $95,878 | $96,843 | $965 | $37.12 |
| GS-13 step 1, New York | $124,189 | $125,431 | $1,242 | $47.77 |
| GS-15 step 10, San Francisco | $195,200 | $197,200 | $2,000 | $76.92 |
Your paycheck in January
A biweekly paycheck is 80 hours at the hourly rate, which is the annual rate divided by 2,087 and rounded to the cent. A 1 % raise therefore adds about one hundredth of the old gross pay. Deductions move too: FERS contributions, TSP percentages, FEHB premiums for 2026 and federal and state withholding all changed in January, so the net gain on the leave and earnings statement is usually smaller than the gross gain, and can be negative when a health plan premium rose more than the raise.
Your own 2025 to 2026 change
Your 2026 raise, GS-9 step 3
+$753
| 2025 annual rate | $75,175 |
| 2026 annual rate | $75,928 |
| Per biweekly paycheck | +$29 |
| Locality percentage | 35 % both years |
Checking that your agency applied it
Agencies process the annual adjustment as a mass personnel action, so most employees received an SF-50 dated January 11, 2026 with nature of action "pay adjustment". Three blocks matter. The basic pay should be the base rate of your grade and step in the 2026 table; the locality adjustment should be that base rate times your area's percentage, rounded; and the adjusted basic pay is their sum, or $197,200 if the sum is higher. If your adjusted basic pay differs from the cell shown by the calculator above, look first at the pay plan and the pay rate determinant: a special rate, a retained rate or a law enforcement table each lead to a different figure, and none of them is an error.
The second check is the leave and earnings statement for the first full pay period of the year. The gross for 80 hours should equal the new hourly rate times 80. Hours of overtime, night work or holiday work in that period are paid at premium rates computed from the new hourly rate as well. If the first January statement still shows the 2025 rate, the adjustment usually arrives as a retroactive correction a pay period or two later; there is nothing to claim.
A within-grade increase or a promotion that fell on the same day is applied after the annual adjustment, on the new table. Someone promoted on January 11 was therefore placed in the higher grade using the 2026 rates, which the promotion calculator uses as well.
The frozen locality percentages
A frozen locality percentage keeps the gap between areas unchanged in relative terms. Rest of U.S. stays at 17.06 %, San Francisco at 46.34 %. The locality pay page shows each area's counties and its rank.
Other schedules
The same order set the 2026 Executive Schedule, with level IV at $197,200 and level I at $253,100, and adjusted other statutory pay systems. Wage grade employees under the Federal Wage System follow separate wage surveys and are not covered by these tables. Military basic pay rose by a different percentage set under title 37.
And the retirees?
The January 2026 pay raise applies to employees, not to annuitants. FERS retirees aged 62 or older received a cost-of-living adjustment of 2.0 %, under the diet COLA rule that gives 2 % when inflation is between 2 and 3 %; Social Security rose 2.8 %. The COLA page explains the gap. For January 2027, the President proposes no pay raise at all; see the 2027 raise page.