Special Rate Tables Lookup
A special salary rate only helps you if it beats your locality rate, because you are paid the higher of the two. Pick your series, table, grade, step, and locality pay area to see both annual figures side by side and which one applies.
Reviewed by Jonathan D., 20-year federal employee · Formulas verified against OPM special rates tables ·
A special rate applies only if your position of record and official worksite meet OPM's coverage conditions for the table (5 CFR 530.303(b)). Table 999B lists 36 locations and these agencies: A* ALL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.
- ALBANY-SCHENECTADY, NY-MA LOCALITY PAY AREA
- ALBUQUERQUE-SANTA FE-LAS VEGAS, NM LOCALITY PAY AREA
- ALL PORTIONS OF THE REST OF U.S. LOCALITY PAY AREA WITHIN THE CONTIGUOUS U.S.
- ATLANTA--ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY--SANDY SPRINGS, GA-AL LOCALITY PAY AREA
- AUSTIN-ROUND ROCK-GEORGETOWN, TX LOCALITY PAY AREA
- BIRMINGHAM-HOOVER-TALLADEGA, AL LOCALITY PAY AREA
- BUFFALO-CHEEKTOWAGA-OLEAN, NY LOCALITY PAY AREA
- BURLINGTON-SOUTH BURLINGTON-BARRE, VT LOCALITY PAY AREA
| What this models | Not modeled |
|---|---|
| Annual special rates from 20 of OPM's 462 distinct 2026 tables | The other 442 tables; the tool links OPM's own search instead of guessing |
| Locality rate from the audited 2026 GS table, rounded per 5 CFR 531.604(b)(4) | Retained rates under 5 CFR part 536, which can also beat both figures |
| LEO special base rates as the comparison base on the four LEO-only tables (0612, 0633, 0637 and L132) at GS-3 through GS-10 (5 CFR 530.302, 530.304(d)), matching OPM's own "Salary Table 2026-<AREA> (LEO)" figures | LEO availability pay, administratively uncontrollable overtime, and the LEO retirement provisions |
| Whether the locality pay area you picked is one the table covers, mapped from the table's own location rows onto OPM's 2026 locality pay area definitions. Outside them the tool declares no winner. For Rest of U.S. it also asks whether your duty station is in the contiguous U.S. or a non-foreign area (Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands), because no loaded table covers the non-foreign part of Rest of U.S. | Which specific duty stations inside a covered area are on the table. The location list is shown so you can check your own station |
| Which rate is payable: the higher one (5 CFR 530.303(d)), but only when the table covers your locality pay area. On a table limited to law enforcement officers, to named agencies, to listed duty stations, or to positions its OPM note describes, the result is stated as a condition ("if your position is covered by table X") along with what you are paid if it is not, naming any other loaded table that covers the same series there first | Whether you personally meet the table's coverage conditions; only your agency can determine that (5 CFR 530.303(b)) |
| The Executive Schedule level IV ceiling on both rates ($197,200 in 2026) | The separate 30 percent rate-range limit on a minimum special rate (5 CFR 530.304(a)) |
| OPM notes for each table, shown verbatim, with any position limit quoted in the coverage note under the result | Agency-specific limited-coverage carve-outs described only in a table note; the tool flags them but cannot test your position against them |
| Annual rates only, as OPM publishes them | Biweekly or hourly conversions, overtime, premium pay, allowances, or deductions |
| GS special rate tables | LEO special base rate tables used as the computation base for some LEO schedules (5 CFR 530.304(d)), and non-GS pay systems |
| Precision: whole dollars, as OPM publishes them | Mid-year table revisions published after 2026-10-03; always check the effective date on the linked OPM table |
The rule that decides your paycheck
Being “on a special rate table” is not the same as being paid a special rate. 5 CFR 530.303(d) is blunt about it: an employee covered by a special rate schedule is not entitled to a special rate for any period during which the employee is entitled to a higher rate of basic pay under any other legal authority, and it names a higher locality rate as the example. So the practical question is never “do I have a special rate,” it is “does my special rate beat my locality rate at my grade and step.”
Because the two schedules rise at different increments, the answer can change inside a single grade. Several OPM tables carry a note saying exactly that, warning that the table includes locations where the General Schedule locality rates exceed the special rates at certain grades and steps. That is why this tool prints all ten steps rather than one number.
Coverage is narrower than people assume
A special rate schedule is not a raise for a series. Under 5 CFR 530.303(b) the coverage conditions can turn on occupational series, grade, employing agency, geographic location of the official worksite, and anything else OPM considers appropriate, and your agency has to base its determination on your position of record and your official worksite. Some tables narrow further in the notes: coverage limited to law enforcement officers as defined in 5 U.S.C. 5541(3), or to positions performing work directly involved in electric power generation, or to pilots assigned to a position description that requires piloting aircraft.
That is why the tool makes you search the table's own location list and shows the agency coverage strings verbatim. If your duty station is not there, the table does not reach you. It is also why the result only says the special rate “is what you are paid” outright on the governmentwide IT tables (999B through 999F), which are open to every agency and keyed to whole locality pay areas. On every other table here the answer is written as a condition: if your position is covered by the table, this is what you are paid, and if it is not, here is your ordinary locality rate. When another table here covers the same series in the same place, the fallback names it first. L132 is the clearest case: OPM limits it to pilot positions that “meet the coverage conditions of Special Rate Table 0810” and meet the law enforcement officer definition, so an Interior pilot who fails only the LEO test is still on table 0810 ($76,454 at GS-9 step 1 in Rest of U.S.), not on the $61,722 locality rate.
The comparison now enforces the geographic half of that itself. Each table's location rows were mapped onto OPM's 2026 locality pay area definitions, which list every area by the FIPS state-and-county codes the special rate tables print, so the tool knows which of the 58 locality pay areas a given table reaches. Pick one it does not, and it says the table does not cover the location and names the locality rate instead of declaring a winner. Being inside a covered area is still only half the test: a table that names specific duty stations covers those stations, not the whole area, so the location list is there to check your own.
One area needs a second question. OPM's locality pay area definitions say Alaska and Hawaii have their own tables and “other non-foreign areas are included as part of the Rest of U.S. locality pay area,” so a duty station in Puerto Rico, Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands is in Rest of U.S. Tables 999B, 0422, 0810 and L132 cover “all portions of the Rest of U.S. locality pay area within the contiguous U.S.,” and the other tables that reach Rest of U.S. list only stateside duty stations. When you pick Rest of U.S., the tool asks which side of that line your station is on, and a non-foreign station gets the Rest of U.S. locality rate.
Four of the tables here are limited to law enforcement officers. 0612, 0633 and 0637 carry OPM's note saying so, and L132, the Interior pilot table, applies only to pilot positions that “meet the definition of ‘law enforcement officer’ in 5 U.S.C. 5541(3).” For those, the competing locality rate at GS-3 through GS-10 is built on the LEO special base rate rather than the GS rate. 5 CFR 530.302 defines a locality rate as “a GS rate or an LEO special base rate, if applicable, plus any applicable locality payment,” and OPM publishes the result as separate “Salary Table 2026-<AREA> (LEO)” tables. The difference is large: at GS-7 step 10 in the Rest of U.S. area the LEO locality rate is $72,328 against $65,599 on the GS base. Against table 0612's $76,773 at that step, a comparison run on the GS rate shows an $11,174 advantage instead of the real $4,445, two and a half times too large. (The ratio depends on the table: on 0633 it is about 1.7 times.)
Where these rates come from
Every special rate here was extracted from OPM's own 2026 all-tables page, then cross-checked cell by cell against OPM's machine-readable payroll feed for the same year. The all-tables page carries 479 table instances covering 462 distinct table numbers, because 17 numbers appear twice, once superseded and once updated. Taking the later copy of each, the page holds 34,558 grade-and-step cells; the payroll feed holds 461 tables and 34,498 cells. On the 461 tables in both, 34,498 cells were compared and 0 disagreed. The only difference between the two sources is at the table level: 0805 is on the web page and absent from the feed, and its 60 cells account for the whole 60-cell gap. Where OPM published a superseded copy and an updated copy of a table, only the later effective date ships here.
The subset covers 29 occupational series across 20 tables, chosen for the occupations with the most employees on special rates: IT and computer science, engineering, nursing and physician assistants, police, criminal investigators, and natural-resources pilots. Anything outside that set gets an honest “not loaded” answer and a link to OPM's own search rather than a guess. For the hourly side of federal pay, the WG Pay Scale Lookup covers the Federal Wage System.