Foreign Service pay explained: reading the pay scale, what a promotion pays and what the calculator adds

Your Foreign Service pay starts with a table of nine classes and fourteen steps, but the number on your paycheck depends on three more things: where you're paid, what the post adds and whether you're promoted. This guide walks through each one using the 2026 figures, so you can read the table the way HR does. Every number here comes from the official 2026 tables, and the links at the end let you check your own class and step.

Quick note: this is our personal blog, not the State Department, and it isn't financial or tax advice. Your SF-50 and your Earnings and Leave Statement are the official numbers. If you find an error, please email us.

The pay table in one minute

Generalists and specialists are paid on the Foreign Service Schedule: nine classes, from FS-09 (lowest) to FS-01 (highest), and fourteen steps in each class. Each cell is a base salary. (Specialists are shown as FP classes on some forms, but they use the same table.) In 2026, for example, FS-03 step 5 is $93,397 and FS-02 step 1 is $102,409.

The table is set by the President's pay order each year. For 2026 the across-the-board raise was 1%, and the locality percentages stayed at their 2025 levels.

How long each step takes

You move up a step after a set waiting period. Under 22 U.S.C. 3966, steps 1 to 9 take 52 weeks each, and steps 10 to 13 take 104 weeks each, so two years. Step 14 is the top. The step comes automatically unless a selection board finds your performance during the period fell below the standard.

One quirk: FS-01's base pay stops rising at step 10, because Foreign Service pay can't go above the top of the General Schedule (GS-15 step 10, $164,301 in 2026). Steps 10 to 14 in FS-01 show the same number.

What a promotion pays

A promotion doesn't move you to step 1 of the next class. You go to the lowest step of the new class whose base pay is at least the greater of two things: two steps more than you earn now in your current class, or 6% more (3 FAH-1 H-2325).

Here's an example. An FS-03 at step 5 earns $93,397. Two steps up in FS-03 is $99,085, and 6% more is $99,001, so the target is $99,085.

The lowest FS-02 step at or above that: step 1, at $102,409. In base pay that's a $9,012 raise.

Promotions can also land higher than step 1. An FS-03 at step 10 earns $108,273. Two steps up is step 12, at $114,866, which beats 6% more ($114,769), so that's the target.

FS-02 step 4 pays $111,905, which falls short, so you'd land at FS-02 step 5, $115,262. To see your own result, open the pay scale page, pick your class and step and tap Promotion. The cell you'd land in is marked in gold on the table.

Where you're paid changes the number

The base salary isn't what you receive. On top of it goes a rate for where you work:

• In Washington, D.C., you get locality pay. The D.C. rate for 2026 is 33.94%, so FS-03 step 5 pays $125,096 a year, and FS-02 step 1 pays $137,167. Total pay is capped at $197,200 (Level IV of the Executive Schedule), which is why the top cells of FS-01 show a cap.
• Overseas, you get overseas comparability pay instead of locality pay. It's lower than the D.C. rate, so the same FS-03 step 5 is $114,523 overseas.
• Elsewhere in the U.S., each locality area has its own rate. The pay scale page lists all of them.

What the pay table leaves out

Overseas pay is more than salary. The State Department adds allowances that depend on the post:

• Post hardship differential, a percentage of basic pay (your base salary plus overseas pay). In our data it runs from 0% to 35% across 675 posts.
• Danger pay, also a percentage of basic pay, at the few posts that have it (15% to 35%).
• Cost-of-living allowance, a percentage of spendable income, which can be large at expensive posts.
• Housing and other allowances, which depend on your situation.

One more thing readers ask about is tax. Foreign area allowances, such as the cost-of-living allowance, housing and the education allowance, are generally not taxable under section 912 of the Internal Revenue Code. Differentials, such as post hardship and danger pay, are taxable. Check your own situation with a tax professional.

The post allowances table lists every post's percentages with the date they were loaded. The Salary Calculator combines them with your pay: pick your grade and step, add up to ten posts and compare them side by side.

If you're not a standard generalist

• Special agents are paid from the OPM law enforcement special rates, which run a little higher than regular locality pay, and they get law enforcement availability pay (LEAP) of 25% of their basic pay, which includes locality pay or overseas pay. Switch on Special Agent in the calculator or on the pay scale page.
• Civil Service spouses teleworking overseas (DETO) are paid locality pay set by the State Department at two thirds of the D.C. rate, which is 22.62% in 2026, or less if their own locality rate is lower. The calculator has a DETO mode, and the pay scale page has a DETO button on its Civil Service tab.
• Senior Foreign Service pay has no steps. The law sets one range, $151,661 to $228,000 in 2026, and the State Department sets each person's pay within it.

A five-minute way to check your own numbers

1. Open the pay scale, choose your class and step, and read your D.C. and overseas pay.
2. Tap Next step and Promotion to see what changes and when.
3. Open the Salary Calculator to add a post's allowances and compare posts.
4. Compare the result with your latest Earnings and Leave Statement. If they differ, ask your HR or payroll office why before you plan around either number.

The tables are refreshed every January when the new pay order comes out, and the pages say which year they show.

Photo by Marta Branco.