How do 2025 GS pay rates compare to equivalent DoD and federal contractor salaries?
Executive summary
2025 GS base pay increased 1.7% and the official 2025 GS salary tables are published by OPM (annual rates by grade and step) [1]. Reported averages for “contractors” vary widely across sources: FederalPay lists an average contractor pay of $113,063 [2], PayScale reports a 2025 average government-contractor salary of $63,139 [3], and ZipRecruiter shows an average DoD contractor annual pay of $90,674 [4]. OPM notes locality and special-rate adjustments that raise GS pay above the base schedule and that DoD uses separate Federal Wage System surveys for some non‑GS pay [5] [6] [7].
1. GS 2025: The published baseline and how to read it
OPM published the 2025 GS salary tables incorporating a 1.7% across‑the‑board increase; those tables list annual rates by grade and step and are the authoritative baseline for federal white‑collar pay [1]. Those base rates are only part of the story: OPM’s system applies locality pay adjustments across more than 50 locality areas and can authorize special rates where recruitment or retention problems exist, so a GS-13 in Washington, D.C., for example, will earn materially more than the raw GS base number [7] [5].
2. Locality and special rates: where GS can out-earn private pay
OPM’s locality schedule and occasional special-rate tables are explicit mechanisms that raise total GS compensation above base pay; locality adjustments “raise salaries by 10% to 30% or more” in high‑cost metros according to secondary reporting, and OPM also authorizes special higher rates for hard-to-fill occupations [1] [7]. The implication: direct comparisons of “GS vs contractor” require location- and occupation-specific adjustments rather than looking at base tables alone [7] [1].
3. Contractor pay: wildly inconsistent averages in public datasets
Available public sources show divergent contractor averages: FederalPay’s contractor page lists an average pay of $113,063 [2], PayScale reports an average government‑contractor salary of $63,139 for 2025 [3], and ZipRecruiter’s DoD‑contractor figure is $90,674 [4]. These differences reflect inconsistent definitions (contractor vs government contractor vs DoD contractor), sampling methods, and whether figures are industrywide means, medians, or small‑sample survey results [2] [3] [4].
4. Why the numbers diverge: sampling, job mix and pay structures
The contractor workforce spans entry‑level support to senior technical and program‑management roles; FederalPay notes contracting occupations under GS classifications with top earners over $261k in some samples, while PayScale’s contractor number is based on a small survey sample [2] [3]. ZipRecruiter’s DoD contractor estimate explicitly reports hourly averages converted to annual pay and shows wide percentiles—evidence that employer, skill set, location and percentile drastically change the “average” [4] [2].
5. DoD and FWS differences: non‑GS federal pay and separate surveys
The Department of Defense manages Federal Wage System (FWS) wage schedules for many blue‑collar and non‑GS roles and conducts its own wage surveys; OPM points users to DoD for FWS information, underscoring that some DoD or NAF positions are outside the GS/locality paradigm and are set by different comparability rules [6]. That separation complicates comparisons where a contractor performs work traditionally paid under FWS rules versus a GS professional role [6].
6. How to compare apples to apples: what a responsible comparison needs
A fair comparison requires matching grade/step + locality + special-rate status for GS employees to contractor job title, experience level, employer size, and geographic pay market. OPM’s GS salary calculator and pay tables are the correct starting point for GS totals; contractor comparisons should cite the specific dataset and methodology—something current sources do not converge on [8] [1] [2].
7. Bottom line and reporting limitations
Current authoritative GS numbers are available from OPM (1.7% raise and full 2025 GS tables) and confirm that locality/special rates materially affect pay [1] [7]. Available public datasets for contractors provide inconsistent averages—$63k (PayScale), $90k (ZipRecruiter DoD), and $113k (FederalPay)—so claims that “contractors earn X% more than GS” are unsupported without specifying the contractor cohort and location [3] [4] [2]. Sources do not mention employer benefits, job security, or total compensation tradeoffs in a systematic way; available sources do not mention direct, apples‑to‑apples matched comparisons across a representative sample.
If you want, I can: (a) compute side‑by‑side pay examples for specific GS grades/steps in a chosen locality using OPM tables, or (b) compile contractor pay percentiles for a selected occupation and location from the cited sources to produce a more precise comparison.