FederalPay.org
FederalPay.org
Law Enforcement (LEO) Payscale in District of Columbia for 2026
The Law Enforcement (LEO) payscale is the federal government payscale used to determine the salaries of over 70% of federal civilian employees.
Like the General Schedule (GS) Payscale, under the LEO payscale an employee's base pay depends on two factors - the LEO Paygrade of their job, and the Paygrade Step they have achieved (depending on seniority or performance). This base pay is then modified based on a "Locality Pay Adjustment", which adjusts the LEO payscale based on cost-of-living in different areas within the United States.
District of Columbia has one or more Locality Pay Adjustment areas with special locality pay adjustment rates. This page lists the locality-adjusted yearly LEO pay scales for each area, with starting pay for a LEO-1 broken down by county in the interactive map.
The WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE-ARLINGTON, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA General Schedule locality region applies to government employees who work in Washington DC and surrounding areas. General Schedule employees who work within this region are paid 33.94% more than the GS base pay rates to account for local cost of living.
| LEO Grade | Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Step 5 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Step 9 | Step 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LEO-3 | $44,538 | $45,775 | $47,013 | $48,251 | $49,488 | $50,726 | $51,963 | $53,201 | $54,439 | $55,676 |
| LEO-4 | $49,993 | $51,382 | $52,771 | $54,160 | $55,549 | $56,938 | $58,327 | $59,716 | $61,105 | $62,494 |
| LEO-5 | $57,486 | $59,039 | $60,593 | $62,147 | $63,701 | $65,254 | $66,808 | $68,362 | $69,915 | $71,469 |
| LEO-6 | $60,616 | $62,348 | $64,080 | $65,811 | $67,543 | $69,275 | $71,007 | $72,739 | $74,471 | $76,202 |
| LEO-7 | $65,435 | $67,360 | $69,284 | $71,209 | $73,134 | $75,059 | $76,983 | $78,908 | $80,833 | $82,758 |
| LEO-8 | $68,202 | $70,333 | $72,464 | $74,595 | $76,726 | $78,857 | $80,988 | $83,119 | $85,250 | $87,381 |
| LEO-9 | $72,977 | $75,332 | $77,687 | $80,041 | $82,396 | $84,751 | $87,105 | $89,460 | $91,815 | $94,169 |
| LEO-10 | $80,363 | $82,954 | $85,546 | $88,138 | $90,730 | $93,321 | $95,913 | $98,505 | $101,097 | $103,688 |
The Washington DC locality pay rates also apply to federal workers in the following major cities: Washington, and other areas within the region.
* For some high-paygrade workers, pay under the GS scale may be capped at $197,200 the SES (Senior Executive Scale)'s Level 4 pay for the current year (5 U.S.C. 5304 (g)(1)).
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