General Schedule

• The federal wage system is designed to ensure that federal employees receive equal pay for equal work. The system is called the "General Schedule" or GS and there are 15 GS levels (1 being the lowest and 15 being the highest). Each level has 10 steps, and each step involves a roughly $1,000 increase, creating about $10,000 differences between each GS level.
  
  

Establishing GS

• The USPTO compensation table starts at GS-5 and goes up to GS-15. Most salaried entry-level jobs are between GS-5 and GS-7. More-experienced applicants can apply for GS-9 to GS-11 jobs if they have either several years of specialized experience or relevant graduate education.
  
  

Salaries

• GS-5 Step 1, the lowest pay grade for USPTO patent examiners, has a salary of $41,969. GS-15 Step 10, the highest grade, comes with a salary of $155,500. Indeed, a salary data tracking website, reports that the average salary for a patent examiner is $65,000 (around GS-9, Step 3).
  
  

Promotions

• As patent examiners gain more experience, they are eligible to move up the steps of their grade, gaining $1,000 per promotion. When patent examiners are promoted, they are eligible to move to a new grade. Patent examiner pay will increase even without promotions, as the federal payment system is adjusted annually for cost-of-living increases.