What is the difference between the wage grade schedule and the GS schedule?

Wage grade is the term used for workers with recognizable skills. These are the people responsible for operation and maintenance of government business entities. The salary is based on similar jobs in the immediate area and the pay grade has 5 steps. There is little lateral movement and promotions are also limited.

The GS pay system has quite a few different letters, GG, GS, payband are a few that come to mind. GS federal employees are typically administrative workers and they conduct business functions such as Training, accounting, human resources, medical, engineering and supervisory. The pay structure for GS is established by aligning the posistion salary as though it were located in the DC area. There's usually a locality pay differential which really boosts the amount that these guys are paid; 18-25% of base salary. Lateral movement between offices and paid relocation expenses affords frequent pay increases while performing repetitive work functions