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What is the base salary for an experienced ICE agent in 2025?
Executive Summary
The available analyses show no single authoritative number for a 2025 base salary for an experienced ICE Special Agent; credible analyses place typical base pay anywhere from roughly $71,674 up to $176,000 depending on methodology and definitions of “experienced.” Official General Schedule ranges produce lower statutory base pay ceilings, while employer-reported and crowdsourced salary aggregators show higher median and top-end figures once locality pay, overtime, Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP), and agency-specific pay practices are included [1] [2] [3]. The discrepancy arises from different data inputs—federal GS pay tables versus self-reported totals and private aggregator estimates—so the precise 2025 base salary depends on grade, location, and which components are counted as “base” [1] [2] [4].
1. Why official GS tables set a lower “floor” and ceiling for federal pay
Federal General Schedule (GS) pay tables provide the most authoritative statutory baseline for ICE Special Agents because most federal law‑enforcement hires are paid on the GS scale; those tables list GS‑9 through GS‑15 pay ranges that in one analysis translate to a 2025 base-pay span from about $41,563 to $129,517 [1]. Those numbers are strictly base pay before locality adjustments, LEAP (an automatic 25% for many law enforcement occupations), overtime, premium pay, or recruitment/retention incentives. Analysts using GS tables therefore report more conservative base ranges; these figures matter because they reflect pay set by statute and OPM tables, and they remain the reference point for budgetary forecasts and public records requests [1]. Relying on GS data avoids self-reporting bias but understates take-home pay when law-enforcement supplements apply.
2. Why aggregator and employee-reported figures are higher—and what they include
Crowdsourced and private-aggregator platforms report substantially larger base or total-pay ranges—Glassdoor shows estimated base-pay ranges $115K–$176K and median base around $142K, while other private analyses place experienced totals as high as $167,603 or total-pay ranges reaching $121K–$188K [2] [5]. These figures often reflect locality pay in high-cost areas, LEAP, overtime and premium pay, and sometimes allowances or bonuses that employees perceive as base salary. Aggregators incorporate self-reported wages that may conflate base pay with predictable supplements; they also skew toward respondents in high-cost regions or higher grades. If “base” is defined loosely to include regular supplements, the reported numbers align with those higher ranges—but that is a different metric than statutory GS base pay [2] [3].
3. Conflicting claims and inaccessible sources: what to watch for
One cited source, ZipRecruiter, could not be accessed in the analyses and returned an HTTP 403, so its November 2025 headline figure could not be independently verified [6] [5]. Several other entries present divergent ranges—some analyses say experienced agents fall between $90K–$144K, others give entry-to-experienced spans from roughly $48K to $167K—revealing methodological divergence [3] [7]. Published dates vary: one source that relied on GS listing is dated 2014 though it summarizes GS ranges that remain relevant [1], and other sources include June 2024 or July 2025 update stamps [2] [8] [7]. Inaccessible pages and mixed dating underscore the need to check whether “base” includes statutory pay only or additional recurring law‑enforcement supplements.
4. Which number to use when answering “experienced ICE agent base salary in 2025”
For a defensible, conservative answer anchored in federal rules, use GS pay tables with law‑enforcement supplements applied separately: statutory base pay for relevant GS grades in 2025 runs roughly $41.6K–$129.5K, and an “experienced” ICE Special Agent is typically GS‑13 to GS‑15 where base pay covers roughly $71.7K–$129.5K [1]. If the questioner expects the practical take‑home or routinely received “base” that many employees report, median figures from employee-reported aggregators put experienced agents near $115K–$142K, with some reports topping $176K when locality pay and LEAP are counted [2] [3]. Be explicit about the definition you use—statutory GS base versus employer-reported total—because the two produce materially different numbers.
5. What remains uncertain and what additional checks to perform
Key uncertainties persist around the precise definitions and which supplements are counted as base. The analyses show variation from different datasets, self-reporting bias, inaccessible recruiter pages, and dated GS summaries [6] [1] [2]. To resolve this for a specific case, obtain the ICE job announcement or OPM/OPM-linked locality-adjusted GS table for the relevant year and duty station, and then add LEAP and locality pay explicitly to compute practical pay; corroborate with Glassdoor only as a secondary cross-check [1] [2]. Without that step, answering with a single dollar figure will conflate distinct compensation concepts and risk miscommunication.