What are the typical salary ranges and total compensation packages for new agents/officers in federal law enforcement in 2025?
Executive summary
New federal law enforcement hires in 2025 are paid from the Office of Personnel Management’s LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) pay tables, with entry pay varying by GL grade, step and locality adjustments; typical starting base pay for GL‑5 through GL‑10 spans roughly the low $40,000s to the high $60,000s before locality or availability pay, while market aggregators and agency postings show total cash compensation commonly reported between about $60,000 and $90,000 in year‑one depending on agency and location [1] [2] [3] [4]. Benefits — retirement, health insurance and leave — add meaningful value to total compensation but are less frequently monetized in public summaries [2] [5].
1. How base pay is determined: GL grades, steps and locality premiums
Federal LEO salaries are set on a special pay scale authorized for law enforcement that assigns LEO grades (generally GL‑3 through GL‑10) and steps within each grade; the Office of Personnel Management publishes 2025 LEO base rates and locality schedules that form the legal backbone of pay determinations [1] [6]. Locality pay can materially change take‑home pay — for example, high‑cost areas such as San Francisco carry the largest locality adjustments while the “Rest of U.S.” rate is lower — and FederalPay’s explainer emphasizes that locality additions range substantially and drive much of the variance across hires [7].
2. Typical starting ranges reported by agencies and official tables
Agency postings and OPM tables align to show that new special agents or officers often begin between GL‑5 and GL‑9 pay bands; ATF’s public guidance, for instance, says new special agents may start anywhere from GL‑5 step‑1 up to GL‑9 step‑10, corresponding in recent years to a base range roughly $41,781 to $68,442 before locality and availability pay [2]. The official OPM LEO and locality tables provide the definitive base rates for 2025; exact dollar amounts for each grade/step and locality are listed in those tables [1] [6].
3. Additional cash: availability/LEAP and real‑world totals
Many federal criminal investigators are eligible for availability pay (often called LEAP), which increases total cash compensation for those categorized as criminal investigators or similar LEO positions and is commonly applied at agencies such as the FBI and others [8]. Private salary aggregators and job sites, which mix advertised and self‑reported pay, typically show higher blended figures for “total compensation” — PayScale’s 2025 median for “Federal Law Enforcement” is about $65,244 and ZipRecruiter’s mid‑2025 snapshots range from roughly $68,600 to $88,800 depending on dataset and timing — illustrating that real‑world first‑year totals after locality and LEAP commonly place many new hires in the $60k–$90k band [4] [3] [9].
4. Benefits and non‑salary value that alter total compensation
Health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, dental/vision options via FEDVIP, generous accrual of annual leave based on tenure, and federal retirement plans are standard parts of the package and form a significant portion of total compensation even though they are not always reflected in headline salary numbers; ATF’s benefits summary explicitly lists FEHB, FEDVIP and leave accrual as employee benefits [2] [5]. OPM’s pay and leave pages frame these programs government‑wide, but converting those benefits to a single “total compensation” dollar figure requires assumptions OPM and agency summaries do not provide on a universal basis [5].
5. Caveats, data sources and reading between the lines
Official OPM LEO tables and locality schedules are the authoritative source for base pay and must be consulted for precise grade/step figures by location; FederalPay and agency pages offer useful explanations of mechanics but are secondary to OPM’s published tables [1] [7]. Aggregators like PayScale and ZipRecruiter provide market context but blend multiple agencies, experience levels and supplements [4] [3] [9], so their higher headline averages reflect locality, availability pay and reporting differences rather than a single standardized “new hire” guarantee. Where OPM and agencies do not publish a single consolidated “total compensation” number for new hires, the best-supported inference from these sources is: base pay typically starts in the low‑to‑mid five‑figure range and total first‑year cash plus benefits for many federal LEO hires commonly falls into a roughly $60,000–$90,000 window depending on grade, locality and availability pay [1] [2] [8] [3].