10/05/2011 – Jenine Armstead
Many people know that government jobs pay, but most people don’t know much more than that. The truth is that not only do government jobs pay well, plenty of positions are located in a variety of regions. Along with that, many different government agencies have different pay scales.
U.S. Government
The key to selecting a government agency is to research and find out as much as possible. You must research the agency and its particular pay scales. For example, find out about the locality pay, hazard pay, or any other positional pays that may be associated with that particular agency.
We all know that pay is an important aspect of any career selection, so the government is no different from any other position that you have applied for. Yet, there are a few exceptions, in that the government has great benefits that no other civilian company can match – exactly.
Still, where people tend to get confused is with the General Schedule Step grades. GS pay scales for the Office of Personnel have pay grades within the pay grade called STEPs. When you review the GS Pay scale on the OPM website you will see basic, locality and then there is also a pay scale that combines basic pay and locality depending on the location of the position. Among the pay scale are the steps of the pay. Steps are normally given to the pay grade employee depending on “time in grade,” the normal promotional time period is 1 year per pay scale and step.
Here is a web site for the Office of Personnel Management that will give you more insight on how this agency categorizes its pay grades and locality pay. http://www.opm.gov/flsa/oca/09tables/indexGS.asp
If you need more information, or have a question you may contact me anytime. Happy job hunting.
