New York locality pay 2026: GS pay table

Four states, one rate

The area is not only the five boroughs. In New York State it takes the Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond counties, Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk) and the Hudson Valley up to Dutchess, Ulster, Orange and Sullivan. In New Jersey it takes the northern and central counties, from Bergen and Essex down to Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean. Connecticut contributes Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield. Pennsylvania contributes the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos: Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne.

That last group surprises people. A worksite in Allentown or Stroudsburg is paid at 37.95 %, while one in Philadelphia, a shorter drive from parts of the Lehigh Valley, is paid at 28.99 %. OPM builds these lists from commuting data and the federal statistical area definitions, not from distance on a map.

The split in New Jersey

New Jersey is divided between two areas. The 14 counties listed for New York sit in the north and center; 7 southern counties, among them Camden, Burlington, Atlantic and Cape May, belong to Philadelphia. OPM also lists Fort Dix, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, McGuire Air Force Base by name under New York, so those installations follow the New York table regardless of the county line. If your SF-50 names the base as the duty station, that listing is the one that counts.

Connecticut and the Hartford line

Three Connecticut counties are in New York. Hartford, Middlesex, New London and Tolland counties belong to the Hartford area at 32.08 %, and Windham County goes to Boston at 32.58 %. Moving a duty station from New Haven to Hartford therefore lowers a GS-11 step 1 from $88,005 to $84,260.

Commuting from Pennsylvania, teleworking from home

Pay follows the official worksite, never the address you sleep at. Under 5 CFR 531.605, a teleworker scheduled to report to the Manhattan or Newark office at least twice in each biweekly pay period keeps the New York rate, even when home is in a Rest of U.S. county. Drop below that and the home becomes the worksite. For a GS-13 step 1 the gap between New York and Rest of U.S. is $18,994 a year, and against the Washington-Baltimore rate of 33.94 % it is $3,646.

Where the cap starts

At 37.95 %, GS-14 stays below the ceiling at every step, topping out at $192,694. GS-15 is different: steps 5 to 10 all show $197,200, the Executive Schedule level IV rate. A senior specialist at GS-15 step 5 gains nothing from the next 5 within-grade increases until the cap rises. The pay cap page explains how the limit is set.