Talk:General Schedule (US civil service pay scale)

dede edit

The article General_schedule is much more expansive in terms of content than this article, however, General_schedule should be merged into this article as this article bears what should be the proper name of the article.Cvieg 17:30, 14 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Someone-in-the-know, please add cite.php capability to this page. Might help the referencing problem. Until then I will just manually add my citation to the references section. Juxtapos99 06:23, 17 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Prior Military Service edit

I'll check periodically to see what people say about this. Does having prior military service count toward a higher starting step on the GS pay scale? (i.e having 5 years of military service in Intelligence....instead of starting out as a GS9 Step1 or GS10 Step1, you could start out as a GS9 Step4 or GS10 Step 4)


Not that I've ever noticed. However, it can help qualify you for a position in lieu of or in addition to college. (Ever read a Government job announcement? According to many of them, a PhD is required to qualify for a GS-9 position! I got a GS-10 with an AA and 11 years in the Army.) The hiring authority is allowed to start you off at better than Step 1, but they have to justify it with my limited experience. Dan 139.139.67.70 14:49, 18 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

When I requested a Step increase Civilian Personnel said that I would have to provide 3 pay statements showing that I made more money than the step they wanted to put me at. They also said that Military Leave and Earnings Statements were not acceptable. I was able to negotiate my annual leave based on superior qualification. Instead of receiving 4 hours per pay period I got 6.

Wikipedia is not a forum. --Kraftlos (Talk)(Contrib) 09:40, 22 November 2008 (UTC)Reply

You may be able to find specific references on the OPM website, but as a hiring official I have always been told by the HR folks that prior military service may in some cases impart "veterans preference" to an applicant, meaning a veteran should be hired instead of a non-veteran if s/he is on the "best-qualified" list. A genuine personnelist with a Federal agency should be able to find the correct citations for inline references. As a rule, military service counts toward time in service and thus toward eligibility for Federal retirement (as does Peace Corps service, for example), but again, that's something a personnelist could run down best of anyone. Amustard (talk) 01:59, 26 May 2009 (UTC)Reply

References edit

Pulled these references off the page, I was hoping whoever placed them here could use the proper citation templates and place them as footnotes. The other references need to be cited properly as well, though the footnotes are already in place.

Thanks --Kraftlos (Talk)(Contrib) 09:37, 22 November 2008 (UTC)Reply


Prior military service is counted to adjust your Federal hire date that is used to calculate certain benefits such as your leave category. However, if you receive military retired pay your military time is not used for this. Depending on the job posting and your VA disability rating, one can receive hiring preference but not increased steps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Buldawg (talkcontribs) 02:21, 15 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

Original research & POV edit

I added many tags to a section that seems to be almost entirely comprised of original research. Once the OR is removed, remove the tags. ask123 (talk) 19:11, 6 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

Hmm, the items you tagged don't strike me as original research, but rather the common experience of everyone I know who was hired into Federal Service and came up the ranks of the civil service. It probably didn't take any research :-) Perhaps some issue of "Government Executive" or another professional journal has something citable on the typical career path of a GS employee. Amustard (talk) 02:02, 26 May 2009 (UTC)Reply
The language could be slightly altered to make it less firm, and thus less objectionable. [Maybe?] I don't see how many of the tags are 'original research,' although I agree with a few. Jed (talk) 18:31, 11 August 2009 (UTC)Reply
I can see the OR, what is your NPOV objection?Richard Manion 17:23, 15 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by RickManion (talkcontribs)

Since there isn't an NPOV discussion, or any NPOV complaints in the discussion page, I removed the NPOV tag. Richard Manion 01:34, 3 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by RickManion (talkcontribs)

NSPS Conversion edit

This article says that all NSPS employees are going back to the pay system they came from, but that isn't true; see http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/faqs.html Jablomih (talk) 00:20, 27 August 2010 (UTC)Reply

Requested move edit

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not Moved Mike Cline (talk) 18:12, 23 November 2012 (UTC)Reply



General Schedule (US civil service pay scale)General Schedule – The disambiguator "(US civil service pay scale)" is not necessary, General Schedule redirects here and there is no other General Schedule article. Relisted: notified original mover. DrKiernan (talk) 18:00, 13 November 2012 (UTC) 87.78.139.251 (talk) 17:38, 5 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

  • Oppose. Agree that the current name is not ideal, but the proposed name is far too vague and ambiguous. Andrewa (talk) 17:59, 13 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Ambiguity with what? What other "General Schedule" might this be confused with? A more specific natural title would be no problem, but that is not what a parenthetical disambiguation is for: It only exists to disambiguate topics within Wikipedia. Therefore, the current title simply cannot stay. It's either General Schedule (which already redirects here), or some other natural title. Any suggestions? --87.79.47.181 (talk) 18:23, 13 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
  • Oppose. WP:CRITERIA states: A good Wikipedia article title has the five following characteristics.... Recognizability – Titles are names or descriptions of the topic that are recognizable to someone familiar with (though not necessarily expert in) the topic. General Schedule doesn't satisfy that criteria, it's far too vague to the average reader. Zarcadia (talk) 21:56, 13 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
  • Oppose—Well yes: recognisability. Tony (talk) 23:03, 13 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
  • Oppose – ambigous, lacks precision ("Name an article as precisely as is necessary to indicate accurately its topical scope" [1]); this is not the only "general schedule" that appears in decades of US regulations; see [2]. Dicklyon (talk) 23:46, 13 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
  • Hm, per WP:NCDAB, "If there is a choice between using natural and parenthetical disambiguation, such as Mathematical analysis and Analysis (mathematics), there is no hard rule about which is preferred. Both may be created, with one redirecting to the other. The choice between them is made by consensus, taking into account general naming criteria (e.g., consistency with the pattern used for similar articles)."
    If General Schedule is too generic/vague/ambiguous, how about General Schedule pay scale instead? Imho the parenthetical is a poor choice because by common usage it implies the current existence of other "General Schedule" articles, i.e. on-wiki disambiguation as opposed to mere specifity (or "real-world disambiguation"). --87.79.178.85 (talk) 02:28, 14 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
  • Support. If there is nothing else called General Schedule then brackets are not needed! Unreal7 (talk) 15:29, 14 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

QSI date becoming the start date for next Within Grade Increase is incorrect. edit

Never edited a Wiki page before and don't want to mess anything up. But, saw an error I though someone might want to fix. Putting in the talk page.

From: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/quality-step-increase/

"A QSI does not affect the timing of an employee’s next regular within-grade increase, unless the QSI places the employee in step 4 or step 7 of his or her grade. In these cases, the employee must complete the full waiting period for the new step, 104 weeks for steps 4-6 or 156 weeks for steps 7-9. However, the time an employee has already waited is not lost; it continues to count towards the waiting period for the next step increase. The QSI provides the employee the benefit of receiving an additional step increase at an earlier date than he or she originally would have without losing any time creditable towards his or her next WGI." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.141.104.10 (talk) 14:14, 22 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

SNCO edit

In the context of this article, SNCO, the S means staff NOT senior. GS-5,6,7 is not senior anything. See this link for an example: http://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/MessagesDisplay/tabid/13286/Article/162779/fy-2015-staff-noncommissioned-officer-snco-promotion-board-schedule-and-policies.aspx Nasa-verve (talk) 21:05, 13 June 2014 (UTC)Reply

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Is "General Schedule" capitalized? What is "WG"? edit

Since the title of the article has both words in General Schedule in initial caps, which matches "the Senior Executive Service and the Executive Schedule," I'm changing the intro's bolded topic term to match. (  Done) If you think this is wrong, please explain why and clarify if this article should follow a different capitalization format than these related articles.

Also, what the heck is WG in "the Federal Wage System (WG, for federal blue-collar civilian employees)"? Why is it bolded? I got to figure out more about what it is before removing it, but the bolding has got to go right away (  Done) because that term is NOT the topic! It doesn't appear in the Federal Wage System article at all and searching for "wage WG" turned up nothing useful. I plan on using Wikipedia:WikiBlame to see when it was introduced (  ToDo ) and if there was a change along the way (  ToDo ), but my real-life limitations might get in the way, so please feel free to follow up on it. Thanks! Geekdiva (talk) 01:49, 10 June 2019 (UTC)Reply

WG stands for "wage grade". This pay system is for certain blue-collar workers as opposed to the GS which is for white-collar workers. Quidam65 (talk) 23:56, 3 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

Pardon the long delay in adjusting 2024 numbers edit

This is one of the most comprehensive changes in recent years. Four new areas were added, and many of the others had significant changes to boundaries (some counties aren't listed as they are in the redefined CSAs while others had many new additions. Quidam65 (talk) 23:57, 3 January 2024 (UTC)Reply