What are the 2025 GS base pay rates by grade and step?

1. What the “base pay” table is and where to find it — the official source

OPM’s Salary Table 2025‑GS provides the official annual base pay amounts by grade and step — i.e., the non‑locality nationwide rates that apply before any locality percentage is applied — and is titled “Salary Table 2025‑GS: Incorporating the 1.7% General Schedule Increase. Effective January 2025.” The PDF contains the annual rates for GS‑1 through GS‑15 and Steps 1–10 ^[1].

2. The headline change for 2025: 1.7% base increase (and locality context)

For 2025 the Administration issued an alternative across‑the‑board increase of 1.7% to GS base pay (implemented by Executive Order), and OPM’s 2025 GS base table reflects that 1.7% increase ^{[4] [1]}. Fact sheets and analyses note that the overall average federal pay impact cited publicly was ~2.0% because an average locality increase (about 0.3%) is layered on base pay in locality calculations — but locality pay is separate and varies by geographic area ^{[2] [3]}.

3. What you’ll see on the table — annual rates by grade and step

The OPM PDF lists annual dollar amounts for each grade and step (Step 1 through Step 10) and shows the within‑grade amounts used to calculate higher steps; it is the authoritative base (non‑locality) schedule that agencies and payroll systems use as the starting point ^[1]. If you want a specific cell — e.g., GS‑11 Step 5 — the OPM pay examples use that table to show 2025 GS‑11 Step‑5 changing from $70,387 ^[5] to $71,583 in 2025 after the 1.7% ^[3].

4. Locality and other adjustments you should not confuse with base pay

OPM and federal HR explain that most GS employees receive locality pay on top of the base table; locality percent varies by area (there are many locality areas including Rest of U.S., D.C., San Francisco, New York, etc.) and is applied to the base pay to produce the payable locality rate ^{[6] [4]}. Law enforcement officers (LEOs) at certain grades may have higher special rates; those special LEO rates and locality rules are separate entries on OPM’s site ^[7].

5. Alternate outlets and calculators: convenient but derivative

Several third‑party sites (FederalPay.org, FedSmith, FedWeek, etc.) republished the 2025 base table and added calculators and locality lookups; they generally derived their tables directly from OPM and often note the 1.7% base increase and locality factors ^{[8] [9] [10]}. These sites are useful for interactive lookups (e.g., by grade/step and locality), but the underlying authoritative numbers come from OPM’s Salary Table PDF ^{[1] [8]}.

6. How to get the exact numbers you asked for (practical steps)

If you need the full matrix of exact dollar amounts for every grade and step, download OPM’s 2025 GS PDF “Salary Table 2025‑GS” (it lists annual rates by grade and step) — that is the canonical source ^[1]. Alternatively, OPM’s GS salary calculator page exists for interactive queries (requires Javascript) and multiple third‑party tools mirror the table for quick lookups ^{[11] [8]}.

7. Limits, caveats, and points of disagreement in reporting

OPM’s table is the official base (non‑locality) schedule; disagreement in secondary reporting is mostly about phrasing of the total “raise” (some outlets state a 2% overall average when combining base + locality effects, while OPM’s table and accompanying fact sheets emphasize the 1.7% base increase and separate locality percentages) ^{[1] [2] [9]}. Detailed payable salary for an individual requires applying the correct locality percentage or special LEO/special rate rules ^{[7] [4]}. Available sources do not mention any other alternative nationwide base‑pay table for 2025.

If you want, I can extract and paste the full OPM 2025 GS base table (all grades and steps) here from the OPM PDF ^[1] or provide a smaller subset (e.g., GS‑1, GS‑5, GS‑7, GS‑11, GS‑13, GS‑15) plus locality examples for a specified city — tell me which grades/locations you care about.