What is the gs 5/7/9 pay scale?

Question

I'm a college student considering a career with the IRS, but when I look at the compensation it just says its based on this gs 5/7/9? I assume its levels based on how long you've been working for the government but does anyone know how long it takes to change levels and what the pay would be at each level? I'm in Massachusetts by the way.

Answer 1

go to opm.gov to see the GS (general schedule) pay grades --

in govt, there are grades, and 10 steps within each grade. so perhaps this job has 3 levels depending on the experience of the person who gets the job. also, "locality" pay is added to the base pay.  NY, houston and san fran have the highest locality pay, so someone in , say, alabama, doing the same job, at the same grade and step as someone in NY.. the NY person would be making more money because the locality pay is higher. locality pay reflects the cost of living in the geographic area.

hope this helps