“I am a GS-05 and I barely scrape in $24,000 a year. “
Is that salary amount an error?
( I have never knocked government workers so that question has no hidden meaning.)
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GS-05, Step 4. After taxes and deductions, that’s all I bring home. I am single, no one else at home but me, so they take out lots in taxes, and in Indiana I pay federal, state and local taxes.