GS Grade & Locality Comparisons 2026
A GS pay decision is usually one of two moves: a higher grade or a different locality. Each comparison on this page measures the move the same way, as the change in net biweekly pay after FERS, TSP, FEHB, FICA, and income tax, so the two kinds of move can be weighed against each other.
How to Read a Take-Home Difference
Every comparison page reports a gross difference and a net difference, and the net figure is always the smaller one. The gap between them is the marginal deduction stack on the extra dollars: 4.4% FERS-FRAE, 7.65% Social Security and Medicare below the wage base, your federal marginal bracket (12%, 22%, or 24% for most GS salaries), any state marginal rate, and 5% more TSP if you contribute a percentage. Add those up and somewhere between a quarter and a half of a raise never reaches a bank account. The share that does reach it falls as pay rises, because the extra income lands in a higher bracket.
Three habits make the tables easier to use. Read the step-5 rows first; they are the mid-point of each grade and the figure most people are actually offered. Treat state tax as a separate lever, since a no-income-tax state can be worth as much as a locality bump. And check the assumptions line under each table before quoting a number, because FEHB plan, TSP percentage, and filing status move the result by more than the difference between adjacent steps.
Promotion or Relocation?
A promotion changes the base rate. A relocation changes the multiplier applied to it. That distinction matters for three reasons. First, a promotion is governed by the two-step rule in 5 U.S.C. §5334(b) and 5 CFR 531.214, so the new step is set by formula rather than negotiation; the grade pages show that formula worked through. Second, a promotion counts as an equivalent increase under 5 CFR 531.407(a)(2) and restarts the within-grade increase clock under 5 CFR 531.405(b)(2), while a locality change does not. Third, a relocation usually changes the state income tax that applies, which the locality pages price explicitly.
The grade pages are ordered along the common career ladders. The locality pages pair the Washington-Baltimore area with the alternatives people most often weigh against it.
Grade Comparisons
Each page works the promotion rule for that specific step, states the time-in-grade rule that applies, and prices the net difference in several localities.
The entry ladder: 52-week time-in-grade, the two-step rule worked from GS-5 step 5, and why every GS-5 step 1 to 6 lands at GS-7 step 1.
Second rung of the professional ladder: net difference by step and by locality.
The last two-grade jump before promotions become single-grade: net difference by step and locality.
First single-grade promotion: why GS-11 step 5 becomes GS-12 step 2, where the 24% federal bracket first applies, and the WGI clock reset.
The journeyman-to-senior step: net difference by step and locality.
Where the Executive Level IV cap starts to matter in high localities: net difference by step and locality.
Locality Comparisons
These pages hold grade and step constant and change only the duty station. Two effects move at once: the locality percentage and the state income tax, and they do not always point the same way.
The 33.94% versus 17.06% question, priced after DC income tax at every grade.
The two highest-profile localities, 46.34% against 33.94%, with California and DC tax applied.
Whether a Texas locality with no state income tax can match a DC salary after tax.
High locality plus a 13.3% top state rate against lower locality and no state tax.
Tool Comparisons
Generic paycheck calculators do not know what FERS, FEHB premium conversion, or the TSP match are. This page tests which inputs each tool actually handles.