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How do locality pay and overtime affect total compensation for ICE and Border Patrol agents in 2025?
Executive summary
Locality pay, special salary rates and overtime can materially boost an ICE or Border Patrol agent’s take‑home pay in 2025 — with base pay often augmented by locality and special rates, and overtime/AUO sometimes adding as much as 25% on top of base pay (examples and agency guidance cited below) [1] [2]. Recent policy moves in 2025 — including an OPM plan for special law‑enforcement salary rates and DHS/White House arrangements to pay hundreds of thousands of DHS law enforcement during a shutdown — mean those supplements and overtime have been treated as major drivers of total compensation in public reporting [3] [4] [5].
1. How pay is built: base pay, locality, special rates and law‑enforcement multipliers
Federal law‑enforcement compensation starts with a base grade and step on the General Schedule or GL law‑enforcement scale; that base is increased by locality pay or by special/special salary rates targeted to certain law‑enforcement roles and locations [6] [1]. In 2025 the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) moved to create special salary rates and to consult with DHS and other departments about which jobs would be eligible, signalling an above‑normal adjustment for Border Patrol and ICE criminal investigators beyond the 1% across‑the‑board base increase and a freeze of locality tables for many civilians [3] [1]. OPM also describes “special rates” and “special salary rates” as basic pay for most purposes — meaning they factor into retirement, overtime and premium pay calculations [1].
2. Locality and geographic effects: where you work changes everything
Locality pay reflects regional labor markets; agents stationed in high‑cost or high‑demand areas can see substantially larger total pay because locality is added to base pay [7]. Reporting and recruitment guides show example totals that already include locality: for example, entry‑level Border Patrol pay averages cited in industry guides include locality and premium pay, producing annual figures in the mid‑$60k range for GL‑7 starts, while ICE job listings in 2025 advertised ranges that explicitly note locality and overtime can raise pay into higher tiers [8] [9]. Available sources do not give a single “national average” for locality because it varies by duty location [7] [8].
3. Overtime and Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO): the common multiplier
ICE and many Border Patrol positions are eligible for overtime schemes that can add substantial percentages of base pay. OPM and agency reporting note AUO (Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime) and other overtime provisions that in public summaries are described as “up to 25%” of base pay — a common cap referenced for law‑enforcement hires in 2025 reporting [2] [6]. News outlets and agency hiring pages also explicitly advertise that overtime, night differential and premium pay are routine components of total compensation and can push advertised salaries well above base ranges [8] [9].
4. Special pay programs, signing/retention bonuses and temporary “super checks”
Beyond locality and overtime, 2025 reporting documents multiple additional boost mechanisms: OPM’s special salary rate effort for law enforcement, agency signing bonuses (ICE offered large bonuses, including up to $50,000 for some recruits/retiree rehires), and legislative/funding packages that earmarked billions for DHS enforcement hiring and incentives [3] [10] [11]. During the fall 2025 shutdown, DHS arranged to continue paying many ICE and CBP personnel and to issue pay covering lost wages and overtime (“super checks”), per reporting and DHS communications — a policy choice that affected short‑term take‑home pay for those employees [4] [5] [12].
5. Practical examples reporters cite: entry‑level to experienced pay with supplements
Industry and recruitment reporting shows entry‑level Border Patrol GL‑7 totals (including locality and overtime/premium pay) around the mid‑$60k level and ICE advertised ranges from roughly $49k–$89k depending on location and grade — with public reporting asserting that overtime and bonuses can push experienced agents into six‑figure territory in some cases [8] [9] [11]. ZipRecruiter and other aggregators report 2025 averages around the low‑to‑mid $60ks for “ICE agent” roles, reflecting the combined effects of base, locality and premium pay in market samples [13].
6. Limits, uncertainties and competing perspectives
Sources agree that locality, special rates and overtime are major drivers of total pay, but they differ on scope and predictability. OPM and Federal News Network describe formal special‑rate rollouts and consultations (institutional, structural changes) while news outlets emphasize temporary or politically driven payments during events like shutdowns and the “One Big Beautiful Bill” funding that allocated large sums to enforcement [3] [12] [11]. Available sources do not provide a single formula to compute every agent’s 2025 total compensation because eligibility for special rates, locality tables, AUO caps, signing bonuses and temporary pay decisions vary by job title, duty station and specific DHS/OPM determinations [1] [2].
7. What this means for someone comparing offers or evaluating agency budgets
If you’re comparing job offers or assessing budget impacts, treat advertised base pay as a starting point: add locality (depends on duty station), verify whether the role is covered by OPM special rates [1] [3], and assume overtime/AUO can add up to roughly 25% where applicable [2]. Also factor in one‑time incentives and politically driven payments (e.g., retention/signing bonuses, temporary “super checks”) that may inflate short‑term compensation but are not guaranteed long‑term [10] [12].
If you want, I can: (A) run example pay‑builds for a GL‑7 Border Patrol Agent and a GS‑12 ICE criminal investigator in two different locality areas using the 2025 pay tables cited in these sources, or (B) summarize which specific ICE/CBP job titles OPM and DHS have signalled for special rates in the 2025 notices.