What is a General Schedule (GS) Grade and How Does it Affect Federal Archaeologists?

To continue my series looking at US Federal Archaeologists I will take a look at the ‘GS’ and what it means for Federal Archaeologists. The General Schedule (GS) is the pay scale system that the Federal Government uses for the majority of Federal Archaeologists, and majority of Federal employees. There are other pay scales, like the Senior Executive Service and the Executive Schedule pay scales for high-ranking federal employees, but almost all archaeologists, in the Federal Government, are on the GS.

The General Schedule has 15 grades from GS-1 (lowest) to GS-15 (highest). Each government agency establishes the grade of each job based on the level of difficulty, responsibility, and qualifications required. The OPM states that,

‘Individuals with a high school diploma and no additional experience typically qualify for GS-2 positions; those with a Bachelor’s degree for GS-5 positions; and those with a Master’s degree for GS-9 positions.’

So when you see an advertisement for a Federal job and it says GS-blah you know they are talking about a pay level, and a little bit more (I will get to that).

Each grade has 10 step rates (steps 1-10) that are each worth approximately 3 percent of the employee’s salary. Steps are essentially incremental pay increases based on performance and length of service. Usually, one starts on the first step for each grade.

Change in pay across GS grade based on steps in 2014.

The length of service increases typically occur in the following order:

• • steps 1-3 take a year each
• •  steps 4-6 take two years each
• • steps 7-9 take three years each

It normally takes 18 years to advance from step 1 to step 10 within a single GS grade, assuming you remain in that single grade. However, employees can advance steps based on outstanding performance ratings, though only one per year.

GS grades do not just denote levels of pay but also levels of responsibility for the work undertaken. There is even a guidance laying out the responsibilities associated with 0193 archaeologists and the different GS grades.

“Regardless of the specialization, positions in this series are characterized, at the full performance levels (GS-9 and above), by the ability to apply professional knowledge and skills to the solution of problems generally concerned with nonroutine phases of archeological work.

Also included in this series are positions generally at the lower levels (GS-5 and GS-7) involving performance of archeological duties in a trainee or developmental capacity when the following factors are present: An actual objective of the work is to prepare the employees for full-professional archeological work of a higher level; there is a line of promotion to full-professional positions in the organization; assigned duties are of such a nature and variety as to constitute important elements of preparation for full-professional archeology work; assigned duties include or require the study of new developments in the technical literature in archaeology and related professional fields of work; the employees possess the qualifications which are consonant with professional scientific or technical training equivalent to that represented by graduation from an accredited college or university; and the supervision exercised over the positions is directed in part to the career development of the employees.”

Essentially, GS-9 and above positions are consider full professionals why those below are considered training positions. The implications of this can be seen in the distribution of the GS grades across both the 0193 and 0102 positions (see my last post on the difference between these two, 0193 archaeologists and 0102 SS Tech, and where the data below comes from). For example, for the 0193 positions most of the Archaeologists are a GS-9 or above (i.e. professional positions).

Distribution of GS grades for 0193 Archaeologists from 1998-2012

Interestingly there has been a decrease in GS-9, and below, positions since 1998 and an increase in GS-11 and GS-12 positions. A slight blip in N/A positions in the late 2000s might have been the result of different changes in pay scales during that time.

Increases and decreases in different 0193 Archaeologists’ GS grades from 1998 to 2012

For 0102 archaeology-based jobs we see a very different picture with most of the positions being GS-5s or GS-7s. There are a few employed at higher grades and lower but overall these two grades dominate, between 70-80%, 0102 positions.

Distribution of GS grades for 0102 Archaeologists from 1998-2012

In the last few years there has been a switch between the percentage of GS-5 and GS-7 grades. A welcomed development as it means more of the seasonal archaeology staff for the Federal Government are being paid higher wages.

Increases and decreases in different 0102 Archaeologists’ GS grades from 1998 to 2012

The combined spread of archaeologists shows a strong concentration in the GS 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12, grades with GS-11 having the highest current concentration. Around a quarter of all archaeology job are under the GS-11 grade.

Distribution of GS grades for combined 0102 and 1093 Archaeologists from 1998-2012

What does this all mean if you are looking for a job? Well for one GS-7 and below are beginning jobs, so apply according to your skills. Also- don’t just narrow your search to 0193 positions most of the beginning training positions are actually labelled 0102 Social Science Aid or Technician.

Here is the data I used for those figures.

0102 Technician that are archaeologists-

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
GS 1		1	1		1
GS 2	2	1		2	2			1		3	3	1	1
GS 3	11	7	6	21	22	26	21	23	13	22	32	28	34	13	13
GS 4	50	48	32	64	47	30	37	31	23	39	46	83	54	43	43
GS 5	160	173	152	168	183	192	167	137	115	121	165	181	180	153	153
GS 6	20	23	20	17	18	22	21	30	19	27	32	47	39	44	35
GS 7	120	118	121	129	163	145	150	136	120	129	144	184	204	181	194
GS 8	3	2	3	1	1	2	1	1		1	0	1	1	2	1
GS 9	8	9	7	5	5	6	6	6	4	6	7	5	5	4	5
N/A						1

0193 archaeologists

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
GS 4	1	1				1
GS 5	25	34	40	34	32	37	32	19	22	23	11	8	10	3	10
GS 6							1
GS 7	90	66	65	105	87	76	63	77	42	43	44	35	43	30	32
GS 9	251	231	242	272	269	257	255	237	217	226	231	238	261	232	222
GS 11	343	336	342	349	376	397	416	412	405	388	378	381	424	447	464
GS 12	241	251	269	277	297	305	306	308	316	293	256	264	364	364	376
GS 13	78	87	93	100	95	93	93	97	90	77	76	75	92	98	96
GS 14	13	12	13	12	14	20	17	18	17	11	10	10	21	23	28
GS 15	4	4	6	6	6	7	9	9	8	7	6	7	7	8	9
N/A	2	2	3	3	4	5	9	10	9	70	122	147	15	14	9
General Schedule and Related Grade – All	1,048	1024	1,073	1,158	1,180	1198	1,201	1,187	1,126	1,138	1,134	1,165	1,237	1,219	1,246

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Tagged: anthropology, Archaeology, archaeology jobs, Archeology, federal government

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