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How do Step Increases Work? - FederalPay.org

General Schedule (GS), Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) Schedule, and Federal Wage Schedule (FWS) pay employees more based on how long they have been employed by the federal government. These pay scales assign steps to reflect how long a person has been with the federal government. Each step increase increases an employee’s pay 3-5%.
General Schedule and Law Enforcement Officer Schedule use a 10-step system and have the same length of time between step increases. The table below shows the period of qualified service needed to advance to the next step.

Current Step Time Until Step Increase
1 1 Year
2 1 Year
3 1 Year
4 2 Years
5 2 Years
6 2 Year
7 3 Years
8 3 Years
9 3 Years
10 Maximum Step

In the Federal Wage Schedule there are 5 step. The table below shows the period of time between each step increase.

Current Step Time Until Step Increase
1 1 Year
2 1 Year and 6 Months
3 2 Years
4 2 Years
5 Maximum Step

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Topics: FWSGS PayLEO
** This Document Provided By www.FederalPay.org - The Civil Employee's Resource **
Source: www.federalpay.org/articles/step-increases