The General Schedule (GS) is the primary pay system covering most white-collar federal civilian employees, and understanding it is one of the first steps to making sense of a federal job posting. The GS scale runs from GS-1 through GS-15, with each grade representing a different level of difficulty, responsibility, and qualification requirement — GS-5 through GS-12 cover most entry- to mid-level professional roles, while GS-13 through GS-15 are typically supervisory or senior specialist positions.
Within each grade there are ten “steps,” which increase pay incrementally based on time in service at that grade, creating a predictable pay-progression path even without a promotion to a higher grade. A job posting’s listed grade tells you roughly what education and experience level the position expects — many professional roles specify a qualifying combination of a certain degree level plus a certain number of years of specialized experience to be considered at a given grade.
Locality pay adjustments are added on top of the base GS rate depending on where the job is located, since federal pay is adjusted for the cost of labor in major metro areas versus the rest of the country.
When applying through USAJobs, checking both the grade and locality pay area gives a much clearer sense of actual take-home pay than the base GS table alone.