Park Rangers

The salaries for National Park Service employees are based on their levels of responsibility and experience. Employees are assigned salary grade levels. As they gain more experience, they are promoted to higher grade levels or to higher salary steps within their grade levels.

The NPS uses two categories of levels. The first, called the General Schedule (GS), applies to professional, administrative, clerical, and technical employees and is fairly standard throughout the country. Firefighters and law enforcement are included in the General Schedule. The other, called the Wage Grade (WG), applies to employees who perform trades, crafts, or manual labor and is based on local pay scales.

Most rangers begin at or below the GS-5 level, which in 2020 translated to earning between $30,113 and $39,149 annually. The average ranger is generally at about the second step of the GS-7 level, which translates to a salary of $38,544. The most experienced rangers can earn $48,488, the highest salary step in the G-7 level.

To move beyond this level, most rangers must become supervisors, subdistrict rangers, district rangers, or division chiefs. At these higher levels, people can earn more than $80,000 per year. These positions are difficult to obtain, however, because the turnover rate for positions above the GS-7 level is exceptionally low.

Rangers also work for state, county, and city governments, which do not operate on the federal GS wage scale. According to PayScale.com, park rangers earned salaries that ranged from $27,000 to $61,000 in February 2020, with median earnings of $40,047.

Permanent and full-time state, county, and city park rangers usually receive comparable benefits, including paid vacations, sick leave, paid holidays, health and life insurance, and a retirement plan.