# General Schedule The **General Schedule (GS)** is the principal pay and classification system for federal white-collar civilian employees, running from GS-1 to GS-15 with ten within-grade steps each and locality adjustments layered on top. Grade level is set by the duties of the position, not the person, which is what makes the GS scale usable as a targeting instrument: [[Executive Order 14410]] converted positions to Schedule Policy/Career almost entirely **at or above GS-15**. Above GS-15 sit the [[Senior Executive Service]] and the senior-level/scientific-professional pay systems. Blue-collar positions run on the separate Federal Wage System. See [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]]. This is a stub — expand with locality pay, the annual adjustment mechanism, and the pay-freeze history. ## See Also - [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]] - [[Competitive Service]] - [[Senior Executive Service]]