Federal Employee Salary Lookup: Search Public Pay Records

Most federal civilian salaries are public information, and you don't need a special connection to see them. Start with OPM's Federal Workforce Data site, which the agency describes as the U.S. government's official source for data on the federal civilian workforce, or check a third-party lookup tool like FederalPay.org that republishes the same underlying records. From there, the trick is knowing which source fits the employee you're checking, how current that source is, and what the number actually covers once you find it.

Where the official pay records come from

The backbone of federal salary data is OPM's Enterprise Human Resources Integration system, known as EHRI, which feeds OPM's Federal Workforce Data platform. OPM calls that platform the U.S. government's official source for data on the federal civilian workforce, and it tags every release with the month the underlying data reflects, for example a snapshot marked data as of June 2026.

At the individual record level, OPM's public data release policy allows name, job title, grade level, position description, duty station, and salary to be released for most employees. That's the standard set you can expect to see. Some of it still gets withheld depending on the person's job or agency, which the next section covers.

Postal Service employees won't show up in OPM's data

OPM's Federal Workforce Data draws on EHRI, which covers the federal civilian workforce outside the Postal Service. Search for a mail carrier or postal supervisor there and you won't find a match, not because something's broken, but because that dataset simply doesn't include USPS employees.

Third-party sites that republish the data

FederalPay.org is one of the more established third-party tools built to make this data searchable. It draws on OPM's underlying federal salary data and states the record year behind its listings, so you can tell whether you're viewing current or historical figures. Most of these tools also let you filter by department, agency, state, or name to narrow down to the person or role you're checking.

Each site may show a different record year, so check that date before treating a number as current. A figure based on last year's data won't reflect a promotion, a step increase, or a locality pay change that happened since.

Why a name might not show up

A missing listing doesn't always mean something went wrong. OPM's public data release policy documents specific reasons a name or salary figure gets withheld. Employees at agencies OPM classifies as security or sensitive, including the FBI, DEA, ATF, Secret Service, CBP, ICE, and the Bureau of Prisons, have their identity and location details withheld. Certain job series get the same treatment regardless of agency, such as correctional officers, U.S. Marshals, intelligence positions, and Border Patrol agents. In some of these cases, OPM still discloses a combined base pay and total compensation figure without a name attached, so the pay level is visible even when the person isn't.

OPM also withholds salary or bonus details for any employee if releasing that figure would let someone reverse-engineer a performance rating.

If your own listing looks thin or missing, a few things could explain it: the source you checked may not cover your agency, its data may be older than your current pay, your name or agency may not match what's on file, or you may fall into one of the withholding categories above. There's no way to know which one applies without checking the specific case, and it isn't necessarily a sign that something went wrong.

If a specific record still isn't published anywhere, a Freedom of Information Act request may be an option through the agency that maintains it. OPM's own release policy notes that it releases workforce data in compliance with FOIA and the Privacy Act, though disclosure isn't guaranteed in every case.

What the posted number actually includes

The salary field OPM's release policy publishes sits alongside name, job title, grade level, position description, and duty station in a record. For most General Schedule employees, that figure reflects base pay plus locality adjustment, the amount tied to grade, step, and duty station, though special rate tables and law enforcement locality rates can apply instead for some positions, as covered below.

Overtime, agency incentive pay, and employer contributions to retirement and health coverage all sit outside that posted salary figure. Overtime and incentive pay are still cash the employee receives, so they add to gross earnings even though the listed salary won't show them, while employer benefit contributions represent value the government puts in rather than money paid directly to the employee. Taxes and other paycheck deductions then further separate that gross number from actual take-home pay. FedUp.work's pay and compensation tools, available through the tools hub, can help you put a rough number on the benefits side that the posted salary leaves out.

Performance awards, bonuses, and lump-sum payments are tracked as separate financial data outside that core salary field too, so they typically won't show up in the figure you find on a lookup site.

Rebuilding the figure when no record appears

When you can't find a specific person, you can still reconstruct a reasonable estimate. OPM publishes the current General Schedule base pay table and locality pay tables by grade and step each year, covering dozens of metro areas plus a rest-of-U.S. rate. Match the person's grade, step, and duty station locality to those tables and you'll land close to the standard GS locality rate.

Confirm the pay plan before you settle on a number, though. General Schedule law enforcement officers at grades GS-3 through GS-10 get a higher locality rate than the standard table, and some grades qualify for a special rate table that overrides the ordinary locality rate whenever it's higher. If you don't know the exact step, use the range across all steps for that grade rather than picking a single figure. FedUp.work's pay calculators, available through the tools hub, can help you work through that grade, step, and locality math once you've confirmed which table applies.

Using the number as an actual benchmark

Once you have a figure, whether pulled from a record or rebuilt from the pay tables, the real question is usually what it means for your decision. A single grade-and-step figure tells you more about your situation than a broad average would, since averages blend entry-level and senior roles across every agency.

If you're weighing that federal number against what you could earn outside government, it helps to see real listings instead of guessing. FedUp.work lets you browse private-sector roles that value government experience, so you can judge a looked-up federal salary against what similar work pays today.