BidSparq Research · updated August 17, 2026

The Federal Labor Rate Benchmark

Name: The Federal Labor Rate Benchmark
Creator: BidSparq
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What does the U.S. government actually pay per hour? We benchmarked 331,614 hourly labor rates published on federal GSA Schedules to show the going rate for the most common contract roles , so you can price your bid against the real market, not a guess.

$124/hr

overall median published rate

$89-$166

middle 50% of all rates (25th-75th pct)

221

roles with enough rates to benchmark

Median hourly rate by role

The most commonly-priced roles on federal schedules. Bar = median; range = 25th-75th percentile.

Project Manager$145/hr
$118-$175 · 3,170
Program Manager$178/hr
$149-$210 · 2,401
Subject Matter Expert$202/hr
$160-$247 · 1,021
Subject Matter Expert II$192/hr
$154-$239 · 987
Project Manager II$148/hr
$123-$172 · 977
Subject Matter Expert I$163/hr
$133-$205 · 957
Project Manager I$126/hr
$102-$151 · 915
Technical Writer$90/hr
$74-$108 · 806
Subject Matter Expert III$218/hr
$175-$273 · 804
Project Manager III$165/hr
$139-$191 · 664
Consultant$150/hr
$121-$181 · 661
Program Manager II$173/hr
$141-$208 · 589
Program Manager I$150/hr
$118-$183 · 588
Analyst II$100/hr
$85-$118 · 544
Analyst I$84/hr
$68-$97 · 540
Business Analyst$112/hr
$93-$137 · 530
Senior Consultant$181/hr
$151-$228 · 489
Senior Project Manager$167/hr
$142-$195 · 488
Administrative Assistant$60/hr
$50-$72 · 486
Systems Engineer$127/hr
$110-$155 · 466
Analyst III$121/hr
$103-$140 · 458
Database Administrator$118/hr
$100-$139 · 450
Consultant II$147/hr
$119-$181 · 448
Analyst$102/hr
$84-$123 · 435
Business Analyst II$116/hr
$96-$135 · 427
Consultant I$124/hr
$101-$150 · 425
Program Manager III$190/hr
$159-$229 · 412
Business Analyst I$96/hr
$78-$114 · 394
Network Engineer$121/hr
$102-$143 · 376
Technical Writer II$90/hr
$78-$105 · 368

How to read these numbers

These are fully-loaded ceiling rates: the hourly price a contractor may bill on a GSA Schedule, including overhead, G&A, and fee. They are not take-home wages, and they are not directly comparable to commercial salary surveys (which is why we don't frame this as a “pay gap”). Use them to sanity-check where your own GSA rate sits versus the published market for the same role before you submit.

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Methodology

Based on 331,614 hourly labor rates published on U.S. federal GSA Schedule / contract vehicles (the GSA CALC+ dataset BidSparq ingests). Percentiles (25th / median / 75th) are computed per labor category for the most common roles (those with at least 100 published rates, so the numbers are stable); 221 categories meet that bar. IMPORTANT: these are fully-loaded ceiling rates a contractor may bill on a schedule — they include overhead, G&A, and fee, so they are NOT take-home wages and are NOT directly comparable to BLS commercial wages. Use them to sanity-check where your own GSA rate sits versus the published market for the same role.

Key stats from this report

Each answered on its own page with the current figure, source, and sample size.

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