How does the US government pay scale work?

[madville]

11. Here is how I understand GS pay

Go to google and type "GS pay chart". Look at the link to OPM's website. There is base GS pay and then you have to factor in the locality pay.

Every GS position gets at least 14% locality pay on top of the base rate, some higher in more expensive areas.

It is possible to start at a higher step but you have to show you are coming from a higher paying job, not counting overtime, just the base pay rate. They are probably much tighter with the starting pay steps since the labor pool is saturated.

I'm a WG-11 though, it only has 5 steps and you max out after 6 years, in my position it's around $23-27 an hour on the scale.