GS Locality Pay Explained: How Your Location Affects Take-Home Pay

How to Find Your Locality Pay Area

Your locality pay area is determined by your official duty station, not your home address. If you telework from a different geographic area, your locality pay is generally based on the location of your agency office (your official duty station on your SF-50). OPM maintains a complete list of locality pay areas with their geographic definitions on the 2026 GS Locality Pay Tables page.

Some locality areas are surprisingly large. The Washington-Baltimore-Arlington area (DCB) extends from northern Virginia to southern Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia. The San Francisco-San Jose area covers a wide swath of the Bay Area and surrounding counties. If your duty station is near the boundary of two locality areas, the specific county or MSA determines which rate applies.

Locality Pay History and the FEPCA Gap

FEPCA was enacted in 1990 with the goal of achieving "pay comparability" between federal and private-sector wages. Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts surveys to determine the federal-private wage gap by locality. The Federal Salary Council then recommends locality pay adjustments. However, every President since 1994 has used the alternative pay plan authority to implement smaller adjustments than FEPCA recommends. The cumulative result is the 27.54% average pay gap reported by the Federal Salary Council in March 2023.

In 2026, locality percentages range from 17.06% (Rest of U.S.) to 46.34% (San Francisco). The "Rest of U.S." rate was created in 2005 to ensure that all GS employees receive at least some locality adjustment, even those in areas not covered by a specific locality pay definition.

Pay Cap Implications

GS locality-adjusted pay cannot exceed the Executive Level IV rate ($197,200 in 2026). This cap most commonly affects GS-15 employees at higher steps in the most expensive locality areas. For example, a GS-15 Step 10 in San Francisco would calculate to $238,647 without the cap (base $163,053 × 1.4634), but is capped at $197,200. This effectively means GS-15 Steps 7 through 10 in SF earn the same salary, reducing the value of step increases at those levels.

Duty Station Changes and Remote Work

If you transfer to a different locality area, your pay is adjusted to reflect the new locality percentage. This adjustment applies on the effective date of the reassignment. For employees with remote work agreements, the official duty station may be their home address, which could be in a different (possibly lower) locality area than their agency office. This has been a significant issue since the expansion of telework policies in recent years.

Locality Pay and the GS Pay System Structure

The General Schedule was originally designed in 1949 with a single nationwide pay table. As regional cost-of-living differences grew, Congress enacted FEPCA in 1990 to create locality-based adjustments. Before FEPCA, the only geographic pay adjustment was a cost-of-living allowance (COLA) for employees in non-foreign areas like Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. These COLAs still exist separately from locality pay and are governed by 5 U.S.C. §5941.

The Federal Salary Council recommends new locality pay areas based on BLS data. In recent years, several areas have been added or expanded. The process of defining locality area boundaries involves Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) definitions from the Office of Management and Budget. Employees in locations that are not covered by any specific locality area receive the Rest of U.S. rate (17.06% in 2026), which was established in 2005 to ensure no GS employee receives zero locality adjustment.

Special Salary Rates

In some cases, standard GS pay (even with locality) is insufficient to recruit and retain employees in specific occupations or locations. OPM can authorize Special Salary Rate (SSR) tables under 5 U.S.C. §5305 for these situations. SSR tables provide higher minimum rates for specific grade levels in specific occupations and geographic areas. Common SSR-covered positions include IT specialists, medical professionals, and certain engineering positions. Our calculator uses standard GS locality pay tables; employees on SSR tables may have different base pay. This is noted on our Methodology page.

Impact on Recruitment and Retention

The frozen locality percentages in 2026 have implications for federal recruitment, particularly in high-cost metropolitan areas. Agencies in markets like San Francisco, New York, and Seattle compete for talent against private-sector employers offering significantly higher salaries. The combination of the accumulated FEPCA pay gap and frozen locality pay makes recruitment increasingly difficult for technical positions (IT, engineering, cybersecurity) in competitive markets.

Some agencies address this through Special Salary Rate tables (5 U.S.C. §5305), recruitment and retention incentives (5 U.S.C. §5753-5754), or student loan repayment programs. However, these tools are discretionary and vary significantly by agency. Employees considering federal service should evaluate the full compensation package—including pension, TSP match, health insurance, leave, and job security—against private-sector alternatives in their specific locality and occupation.