How LEO pay differs from GS pay

A federal law enforcement officer at GS-7 is not paid from the GS-7 row of the ordinary table. For grades 3 through 10 there is a second base table, the LEO table, with higher rates in every cell. This page explains where it comes from and how it is applied.

The source: a 1990 statute

The Federal Law Enforcement Pay Reform Act of 1990 is title IV of the same law that created locality pay. Its section 403 required that higher minimum rates, with corresponding increases in every step, be established for law enforcement officers in designated General Schedule grades. The section fixed the new minimums by reference to steps of the regular schedule, in two stages. From January 1993 the LEO minimum at GS-3 equals the regular GS-3 step 7; GS-4 equals step 7; GS-5, step 8; GS-6, step 6; GS-7, step 5; GS-8, step 3; and GS-9 and GS-10, step 2. Above GS-10 no special rate was set, so an officer at GS-11 and up is on the ordinary schedule.

The statute says the higher rates are basic pay for all purposes and must be adjusted whenever the General Schedule is adjusted, so as to keep that step linkage. That is why the LEO table moves each January by the same percentage as the GS table and why its step 1 at each grade still equals a specific GS step. OPM publishes it as “Special Base Rates for Law Enforcement Officers,” and this site prints it with annual, hourly and overtime rates as OPM does.

Who is a law enforcement officer

The Act borrows the definition in section 5541(3) of title 5, limited to employees to whom the classification chapter applies. The term is narrower than “works in law enforcement”: it turns on duties and on the statutory definition, and agencies determine who meets it. OPM’s regulations in part 531 define an “LEO special base rate” as the rate established under section 403 for GS law enforcement officers at grades GS-3 through GS-10, used in place of a GS rate.

Locality pay on top

Locality percentages apply to the LEO base rate just as they apply to a GS rate. OPM publishes a separate LEO locality table for each locality pay area, including the Rest of U.S. area, and one for areas outside the United States. Because the base is higher, the LEO locality rate at GS-3 through GS-10 exceeds the GS locality rate for the same grade and step in the same area; from GS-11 up the two tables are identical. Each locality page on this site carries the area’s LEO table beneath its GS table.

OPM’s note on the LEO tables adds a further rule: an officer whose rate on the LEO locality table is below the rate for the same grade and step on an applicable special rate table under section 5305 receives the higher special rate. OPM’s own example is officers at GS-1 and GS-2, who have no LEO base rate and may be covered by a section 5305 special rate table instead. See the special rates overview.

The cap

The level IV ceiling on locality rates applies to LEO tables as it does to GS tables, and OPM marks limited cells with an asterisk. Since the LEO table stops at GS-10, the cap is reached only in the highest-percentage areas, if at all; the Executive Schedule page reports how many LEO locality tables carry a capped cell in the current year.

What the LEO table does not include

The table is basic pay. Premium pay that many officers receive, such as availability pay for criminal investigators under section 5545a of title 5, which is fixed at 25 percent of basic pay for investigators who meet the hours test, is added on top and is not in the table. Neither are the separate pay systems some law enforcement agencies use outside the General Schedule. An offer letter for a federal officer position quotes the LEO locality rate for the grade, step and area; total earnings depend on the premium pay the position carries.

Compared with OEWS

The occupation tables for police and sheriff’s patrol officers and for detectives and criminal investigators cover federal, state and local employers together, and the state tables show the distribution in each state. A federal LEO rate is one employer’s scheduled rate for a classified position; the OEWS percentiles are what the whole market pays, including overtime-free straight-time pay only. The two describe different things and are best read side by side rather than reconciled.