How Much Are Foreign Service Officers Paid

The Foreign Service Officer salary is dynamic and ever-changing. Forth with your promotion, each assignment tin can bring with it different danger pay, hardship pay, and cost-of-living adjustments that impact what you take home.

Depending on international geopolitics, the force of domestic and national currencies, and the size of your family unit, to proper noun a few, your salary can rise or decline between posts.

With this resource and the use of interactive maps, this FSO Salary Guide serves equally a comprehensive introduction to how your income is adamant, and the three main modifiers that touch on it between posts.

Updated January 2020

FSO Bacon Ladder

Every organization has a system in identify to track seniority, the Strange Service is no different.

In order to empathize this guide, you must first learn the foundation before adding layers to information technology. Let's dive in…

You are a brand new Strange Service Officeholder. After over a yr of going through the application process (test, essays, orals, clearances, and the Register), you finally received an offer to join the State Department.

Congratulations!

Among one of the many thoughts running through your heed, you may begin to think about salary. Just how much will I make?

The Strange Service allocates salaries based on a 'ladder' organization made upwards of grades and steps.

Every bit an incoming entry-level FSO, you are eligible for one of iii grades

FP-4
FP-five
FP-6

FP-4 is the highest (most senior) of the three grades.

Inside each grade, there are 14 steps. Pace 1 is the lowest step of each grade and step 14 is the highest.

In brusk, the lower the grade number the more senior you lot are. The higher the step number, the more senior you are inside that grade. Your salary follows this progression as well: inside a grade, the higher the stride then the college your salary.

In tabular array course, it looks like this:

Every bit you progress in your career with the Foreign Service, your promotions will follow "upwardly" this ladder.

Takeaway i: FP-4 is the highest of iii entry-level FSO grades (4, five, or vi).

Takeaway ii: Inside each grade, at that place are 14 steps. Footstep 1 is the lowest stride of each grade and footstep xiv is the highest – the college the step, the more senior within that class.

Determining FSO entry class and step

Now that yous know the basics, allow'south decide the class and step yous could enter as a brand new Foreign Service Officer.

This is the biggest and most important chapter, and then pay extra close attending!

The Department of Land'southward Bureau of Human Resource, Office of Recruitment, Examination, and Employment determines entry-level FSO's grade and step in two parts. These parts take into account the level of education attained, your qualifying experience, and your salary prior to joining the Foreign Service.

PART ane: Education and "Qualifying Experience"

The kickoff part is adamant by combining the level of education you have achieved and the number of total years of Qualifying Experience (QE) yous take attained. The paradigm beneath, past the Department of State, shows how different combinations affect your grade and step.

The level of education achieved is straightforward, the caste you have in hand. But how is QE determined? The definition of QE is found at the Bureau of Man Resources, and the bulk of it follows:

The employee'southward primary duty must exist, or must take been, the performance of work requiring advanced noesis, defined every bit work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consequent exercise of discretion and judgment. Advanced cognition must be in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

Each yr of QE is equal to ane additional step.

If yous do not have a total yr of professional experience, your QE rounds down. For example, 2.5 years of experience is considered 2 years of QE.

However, if the add-on of QE would put you at a step higher than xiv, your step is 14, y'all do not motility to the side by side grade.

In society to best illustrate a salary from now on in this guide, nosotros volition demand the help of Sarah, the newest member of the FSO family.

Sarah is in her early thirties, works as a consultant making $69,000, is unmarried, has no children, earned her Master'southward caste, and has 2 years of QE.

Permit's decide what her grade and step are!

Outset, education. With a Master's Degree, Sarah volition either enter as a course 4 or v.

Second, QE. With two years of QE, Sarah falls in the 0-five 'full years of QE' row and column.

Putting it all together, Sarah attains the grade FP-5. To make up one's mind her step, we just need to add her two years of QE to the minimum pace in the range (i.e. v).

Sarah's form and step are thus FP-5/Footstep-7.

Take a moment and await at the epitome above to get an idea of what your grade/step may exist if you were to enter the Foreign Service today.

Takeaway 3: Entry-level FSO grade and step are determined past combining education achieved and years of QE attained.

Part 2: Attempt to match bacon

Once grade and step are calculated, the Agency of Human Resources' next attempts to lucifer your current bacon.

Once the candidate'southward course and step are determined based on pedagogy and qualifying experience, the Registrar will review the candidate's "current salary" to meet if it is higher than the candidate'southward projected salary as provided in the Strange Service "Overseas" Salary Tabular array. If and then, the candidate's starting salary will be raised to the step in the grade for which he/she is qualified that is closest to, but not less than, their electric current salary. If the current salary is too high to be matched in the Foreign Service grade for which the candidate is qualified, footstep xiv of that course is the starting salary.

So what does this mean?

If your initial grade and step result in a loss of salary, you will advance inside a grade until you attain a step that corresponds slightly college than your current bacon.

However, if your current bacon is higher than the step 14 salary inside the grade you were assigned, y'all volition exist assigned to step xiv. 1 does non advance to the next highest grade.

If you recall most it, that's actually absurd on the Land Department to make this adjustment.

To help explain this further, allow's take a look at Sarah in one case more, who currently makes $69,000, and determine how this may affect her salary.

For further illustration, beneath is the 2020 Foreign Service Salary Tabular array Base of operations Schedule, effective January 5, 2020.

From the steps we completed above, we know Sarah'south grade and step are FP-5/Step-seven.

Knowing this, nosotros can make up one's mind her base salary: $56,297. You tin can see this by looking at the below table (red highlighted box).

Just wait! Sarah's electric current salary is $69,000. Working equally an FSO would mean a loss of $xiii,000. Fortunately, DOS matches salary and her pace should exist raised to stride fourteen within FP-5…right?

Incorrect.

Let'due south review the above quote again:

The Registrar volition review the candidate's "current salary" to see if it is higher than the candidate'south projected salary equally provided in the Foreign Service "Overseas" Bacon Tabular array.

That'south right, we need to look at the "Overseas" table, which is below and has been highlighted at Sarah's current step and grade.

Taking into account Overseas Comparability Pay, at FP-5/Step-7, Sarah's bacon would be $67,737.

This is notwithstanding lower than her current $69,000 salary. As such, we demand to decide the next step within the grade that has the closest highest salary, which is…?

The very adjacent stride! Step 8 has a salary of $69,769.

This ways that Sarah'south new entry-level grade and step are FP-five/Footstep-8.

Become ahead and make up one's mind how salary matching affects you lot!

Takeaway four: The Agency of Human being Resources will attempt to lucifer your current bacon by increasing your step level, up to step 14, inside your assigned grade.

PART 3: Promotions

Once you're in the system, you may wonder about the general process of moving between grades and steps, a.k.a. existence promoted.

First, promotions are considered once a twelvemonth and are based on the needs of the Land Department, your performance, and your potential.

There is an exception to this, and that is if you lot enter the Foreign Service every bit an FP-four/Pace-14, you will not be eligible for a promotion (grade or step) until afterward you are tenured (the first tenure review is after 36 months). This does non mean you may not receive a salary increase within those three years.

Second, for promotion between grades, it is not a requirement to be at stride 14 to advance to the next form.

Third, when you are promoted between grades you are not promoted to the same pace level you currently hold. For example, property all other things equal, if Sarah is promoted a grade from FP-5/Step-viii, she would not exist promoted to FP-four/Step-8.

Instead, when you lot become upwardly a grade your step level is establish by finding the pace that matches your current bacon the closest and then going up 2 steps or half dozen%, whichever is greater (Promotion of Foreign Service Members in FAH).

For Sarah, inside the adjacent grade, the step that closely matches her current Class/Step is FP-4/Step-ane (Base of operations salary at FP-5/Pace-8 is $57,986, base salary at FP-iv/Step-ane is $58,186.

The post-obit table helps illustrate this movement:

We must and so compare our two options, and cull the greater of the 2: (1) go up ii steps or (two) 6%.

A 6% raise is $61,677.

A two Step increase (FP-iv/Step 3) is $61,730.

The two Footstep increase is greater, and Sarah would be promoted to FP-4/Step iii.

Takeaway five: Promotions are considered in one case a twelvemonth.

Takeaway half dozen: If promoted to a new form, the step y'all are assigned will offset correlate with your one-time step salary, not the step number.

In the next three chapters, we volition talk about the three most mutual allowances that affect all FSOs.

Foreign Service Officer Danger Pay Allowance

Unfortunately, not all assignments are condom and some carry actress danger.

I bet if you think really hard… you'll figure out a few of them.

The State Department thank you you lot for taking on these unsafe assignments by bumping your pay.

Thanks, Uncle Sam!

Part 1: What is danger pay allowance?

Danger pay allowance may be the budgetary supplement most of you have heard.

Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen… become sent to ane of these countries, and the question of whether or non you volition be paid more for it will definitely cross your mind.

And the answer is Aye.

Which posts are considered dangerous, and not but difficult, is an important distinction. Additionally, the State Section defines danger pay with the understanding that this designation can change depending on the current state of affairs in that country.

For a mail service to exist designated for danger pay allowance, it must exist:

Established by the Secretary of Land when, and merely when, civil coup, civil state of war, terrorism or wartime weather threaten concrete harm or imminent danger to the wellness or well being of a majority of employees officially stationed or detailed at a mail service or land/surface area in a foreign area.

Further, to earn danger pay, you lot must start spend 4 cumulative hours at that postal service. After the four-60 minutes mark, you will receive a danger pay allowance for the full day.

This means if you wing into Republic of yemen from Egypt, do iii hours of work, and then are wheels up earlier the iv-hour mark, yous do not receive danger pay.

Danger pay designation, and the amount of allowance, is reviewed annually.

For more information, visit the online page on the rules and stipulations concerning danger pay.

Office 2: Danger pay allowance rates

Danger pay assart is a taxable supplement that is designated at 15%, 25%, or 35% and is based on overseas comparability pay.

The more unsafe a post, the college the allowance you receive.

Seventeen countries are currently allocated with danger pay allowances, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen.

Instead of just listing the countries and their allowances (wearisome), below you will find an interactive map you tin can play with.

Color-coded, you lot can visualize the different danger pay posts (the darker the shade of cerise, the higher the danger pay allocation), and see which countries share the same danger pay allowance.

Additionally, if you hover over Republic of yemen, and then Iraq will change to a light blueish color to represent that it shares the same danger pay allowance (equally will the others that share the same allocation).

Going back to our recent FSO employee, if Sarah were stationed in Nicaragua her danger pay allowance would be 15%. With overseas comparability pay of $69,769, a 15% allowance comes out to $ten,465.

If you lot would similar to see a consummate listing you can view the Department of Land Danger Pay Allowance Table.

Takeaway seven: Danger pay allowance, if given, is set at 15%, 25%, or 35% of overseas comparability pay and is initiated when a bulk of employees stationed in a postal service are nether conditions that threaten physical harm due to political upheaval.

Two disclaimers regardings the maps

1. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with Bhutan, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. These countries are left "blank" (i.e., announced 'off white' on the maps).

2. The allowances allocated to the countries in all the maps on this page are the allowances allocated to where the U.S. Embassy, or the predominant U.Southward. diplomatic mission, is located. For instance, Bamako, Mali has a danger pay allowance of 25% and this is what is attributed in the map to a higher place. However, if you are posted somewhere else in Mali, the danger pay may be higher.

Foreign Service Officeholder Hardship Postal service Allowance

Citizens in the U.S. are fortunate to live in a land with a college standard of living compared to others, and her people accept grown accustomed to a higher standard of living.

Posts that are designated with hardship allowance, are much more than common. All the same, unlike danger pay, hardship doesn't mean life-threatening.

For case, is the state'due south pollution too toxic? If it is, then here is a bonus for you lot…

Role ane: What is hardship post assart?

Every bit defined by the Office of Allowances, a hardship differential is established:

For any place when, and but when, the place involves extraordinarily difficult living conditions, excessive concrete hardship, or notably unhealthful conditions affecting the majority of employees officially stationed or detailed in that location. Living costs are not considered in the differential determination.

In order for hardship post differential to brainstorm, an FSO must be stationed and living at a mail service for at least 42 continuous days. On the 43rd day, hardship mail service differential will brainstorm and the FSO will too be paid the differential for the previous 42 days.

Hardship post allowance allocation is reviewed at to the lowest degree biennially.

PART two: Hardship mail assart rates

Similar danger pay, hardship post is a taxable allowance and ranges from 0-35% of overseas comparability pay.

If Sarah were stationed in Prc, her hardship post allowance would be 20%. With overseas comparability pay of $69,769, a 20% assart is $thirteen,954.

Accept a look at the map and permit me know your thoughts are on hardship allowance.

If yous would like to see a complete listing y'all can view the Section of State Hardship Mail Assart Tabular array.

Takeaway 8: Hardship post allowance ranges from 0-35% of overseas comparability pay and is broadly based on unhealthy living weather, which are measured at to the lowest degree biennially.

Foreign Service Officer Cost-of-Living Assart (COLA)

Compared to the residual of the world, many goods in the U.S. can exist bought for cheap – once more, she is a land of plenty.

Some countries though, specially once you have into consideration geographic location (think islands) or currency conversion, are quite expensive to make a living at.

Gas costs how much?! Oh my, hither'due south some extra $$$.

PART 1: What is a Cost-of-Living Allowance?

A price-of-living allowance (COLA) differs from the previous two allowances by non being a percent of your overseas comparability pay, and it is also not taxable.

Instead, COLA is a pct of spendable income, which is the portion of bacon used to purchase the goods and services in the cost of living "market basket".

The market handbasket is an alphabetize of categories comprising of percentage weights comparing the costs of appurtenances and services in foreign posts to the costs of goods and services in Washington, D.C.

COLA is granted to an FSO who is officially stationed at an overseas postal service where the cost of living, excluding housing and education, is "substantially higher than in Washington, D.C." (at to the lowest degree three% more).
More data on the rules and stipulations apropos COLA can exist found here.

The "market basket" includes the post-obit categories:

Recreation
Transportation
Food at Home
Food Away from Home
Household Furnishing and Operations
Medical Care
Auto Purchase
Clothing
Alcohol and Tobacco
Personal Care
Domestic Service

These weighted categories are then compared to those of foreign posts. The categories remain the same, but the weights may differ.

The quarterly reports by the U.S. Section of State go into the methods of how each effigy was determined. For further item, the following is from the U.Due south. Department of State's Indexes of Living Costs Away Jan 2014 Report that helps explicate the comparison further:

To compute the indexes, the average cost of each item on the Retail Cost Schedule for the strange post is converted into U.S. dollars using the prevailing strange currency exchange charge per unit. The strange price is then divided by the boilerplate cost of the corresponding particular on the Washington, D.C. schedule to obtain a ratio of the foreign price to the Washington, D.C. price… To obtain strange postal service expenditure weights, the basic expenditure pattern weights for the Washington, D.C. area are adapted to reflect necessary modifications in consumption made past Americans living abroad. For some posts, weights for major expenditure categories are increased… These weight adjustments increment the base expenditure weights and then that they total more than 100 index points.

To determine these weights, foreign posts consummate a Retail Cost Schedule in one case every four years.

The greater the weight then the higher the COLA allocated to spendable income.

Not every postal service will have a COLA, but the majority of posts exercise.

Fun fact: the highest COLA is currently allocated to Zimbabwe at 70% of spendable income!

PART 2: Spendable income

Now that you know how percentages are derived, and how COLA compares internationally, let'due south take a look at how your spendable income is determined.

Annual spendable income is adamant by your base pay and family size.

Allow'south revisit Sarah once more. Sarah has a base pay of $57,986, is unmarried, and has no children.

Given the data nosotros have on Sarah, her annual spendable income is $24,800.

PART 3: COLA Example

If Sarah were posted in Australia, her COLA would exist 25% of spendable income ($24,800), which comes out to $six,200. This income is and so added to her pay.

Takeaway 9: COLA is a per centum of your spendable income and is not taxable.

Takeaway 10: As your base pay increases and (possibly) the number of persons in your family unit, so too will your annual spendable income.

Hardship pay, danger pay, and COLA - putting it all together

Only like a puzzle, past putting together a little scrap of information we at present have a better understanding of what goes into the FSO salary.

Let's see the image we are creating by combining everything nosotros have learned into one final map.

We've at present discussed the three major allowances that affect a Foreign Service Officer's salary: Hardship pay, danger pay, and Cost-of-living.

Quite a bit of data!

From reading the sections above, y'all know how each assart is allocated to each state and how each country stacks up against each other.

This information individually is already interesting, but viewing the entire picture at once makes for an exciting analysis.

The map below is a comparison of the diplomatic posts that takes the information above and adds information technology upwardly.

Ane last fourth dimension, to our new Foreign Service Officer Sarah:

Sarah has just completed the first office of her training in Washington, D.C., and on 'Flag 24-hour interval' finds out she will exist posted in Nairobi, Kenya.

Exciting!

Now let'southward try and make up one's mind what her salary (at minimum) will be from the information we take learned above.

Base Salary	Amount	Explanation
Base of operations Salary:	$57,986	FP-5/Step-8
Overseas Pay:	$69,769	Overseas Comparability Pay

Allowances	Amount	Caption
Danger Pay:	$0	No danger pay
Hardship Pay:	$13,954	twenty% of overseas pay
COLA:	$ii,480	10% of spendable income: $23,700
Total	$86,203	Overseas Pay + allowances

The combined map below volition help to visualize all this information.

When you scroll over a country you will see two outputs. The first is the annual salary Sarah would receive if she were stationed there. The 2nd is the percent increment in salary when compared to her overseas comparability pay.

I find this dynamic map to be very interesting and I promise yous exercise too. There is just and so much data! For example, all iv of these countries have the same bacon, and however are in dissimilar parts of the earth: People's democratic republic of algeria, Greenland, India, and Indonesia.

Also, just in case yous are wondering, the ix posts with the highest percentage increases are:

Rank	Country	Bacon	% Inc.
1	SOUTH SUDAN	$125,534	80%
2	Central AFRICAN Democracy	$123,567	77%
three	Libya	$119,846	72%
iv	Syrian arab republic	$118,607	70%
five	SOMALIA	$118,607	70%
6	AFGHANISTAN	$118,607	70%
seven	YEMEN	$115,118	65%
8	Republic of iraq	$115,118	65%
9	PAKISTAN	$111,630	60%

The complete listing

Conclusion

Well, that does it. Phew…

There is nevertheless a lot that goes into salary, and we have not even gone into the benefits… and we won't.

BUT, I do suggest reading the determination every bit at that place are some important bits of information in there concerning this guide and other details.

Thank you for reading!

This guide should be used as a launching pad to any other questions y'all have on the Foreign Service Officeholder'southward salary. Feel free to bookmark this page and then you can render for reference and click on the external links.

I put this resource together because I could non observe ane location discussing all the information above. Instead, there were many sources describing but split parts. Now, a comprehensive guide exists.

For those who have not read the "about" page, information technology is important to note that I am not an employee of the State Department. Nonetheless, the information and figures used are accurate as of the posting engagement.

I do my all-time to make sure the information is reliable, but please speak with the Office of Allowances for more than detailed questions on bacon and the factors the affect it.

Having read this guide, yous should now understand how to determine your base salary, overseas comparability pay, and the 3 primary allowances that bear on all FSO salaries.

However, there are other allowances that will alter your salary between posts.

Iii examples not discussed in this guide are:

Didactics allowance (if you accept children then their education is covered overseas)
Hard-to-staff incentive differential
Quarters allowance (free housing overseas or a generous stipend)

Again, for questions outside of the allowances discussed in this mail service, please contact the Office of Allowances. Otherwise, I am happy to accept a go with any questions you lot have.

If you are non in the Foreign Service simply interested in joining, I hope this information has been useful to you! If you are in the Foreign Service, I look forrard to your insights.

Source: https://pathtoforeignservice.com/foreign-service-officer-salary-a-comprehensive-guide/

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