How to Understand Government Job/Career Pay Scales

Many people know that government jobs pay, but most people don't know much more than that. The truth is - is that government jobs not only pay well, they way for the location of the position as well. Many different government agencies have different pay scales.

The key to selecting a government agency is to research and find out as much as possible. You must research the agency and the pay scales of the agencies. Find out about the locality pay, hazard pay, or any other positional pays that may be associated with the agency.

We all know that pay is important aspect of any career selection, so the government is not different than any other position you have applied for. With a few exceptions...the government has great benefits that no other civilian company can match - exactly.

Where people get confused is with the General Schedule Step grades, GS pay scales for the Office of Personnel has pay grades within the pay grade called STEPs. When you review the GS Pay scale on OPM website you will see basic, locality and then there is also a pay scale that combines basic pay and locality depending on the location of the position. Among the pay scale are the steps of the pay. Steps are normally given to the pay grade employee depending on "time in grade" the normal promotional time period is 1 year per pay scale and step.

Here is a web site for the Office of Personnel Management that will give you more insight on how this agency categorizes its pay grades and locality pay. http://www.opm.gov/flsa/oca/09tables/indexGS.asp