Key facts
- Each salary grade has eight steps.
- Length of service: one step for every three years of continuous satisfactory service in the same position.
- Merit: one or two step increments for meritorious performance, but only up to Step 8.
- On promotion, you move to the new grade’s starting step, or the step just above your current pay.
Steps within a grade
Every salary grade has eight steps. New hires usually start at Step 1. In 2026, Salary Grade 11 runs from ₱31,705 at Step 1 to ₱33,611 at Step 8.
Step increment for length of service
Under CSC-DBM Joint Circular No. 1, s. 2012, you receive one step increment for every three years of continuous satisfactory service in your present position. Time served in a position with the same or a comparable salary grade before a transfer still counts. Leave of more than three months delays the increment by the length of the absence.
Step increment for merit
The same circular allows one or two step increments for meritorious performance, but only up to Step 8. The ratings needed are set out in the circular.
Your pay on promotion
When you are promoted to a higher salary grade, DBM Budget Circular No. 2019-1 decides your new step:
- If your current salary is below the new position’s hiring rate, you receive the hiring rate.
- If your current salary falls between two steps of the new grade, you move to the higher step.
- If your current salary equals a step of the new grade, you move to the next step.
- If your current salary is at or above Step 8 of the new grade, you keep your present rate.
An example using the 2027 schedule: an employee at SG 11 Step 2 earns ₱33,501 a month. Promoted to SG 13, whose Step 1 is ₱37,828, the current salary is below the hiring rate, so the employee moves to ₱37,828, a rise of ₱4,327 a month.
Step increments are small compared with promotions. Over a career, the grade you are promoted into matters far more than the steps you earn within a grade.
Sources
- CSC-DBM Joint Circular No. 1, s. 2012: step increments (scanned PDF).
- CSC Forum: grant of step increment (advisory answer citing JC 1, s. 2012, item 6.1).
- CSC Forum: step increment (advisory answer citing JC 1, s. 2012, item 7.1).
- CSC Forum: step increment and leave (advisory answer citing JC 1, s. 2012, item 6.3).
- DBM Budget Circular No. 2019-1 (12 February 2019), item 5.2: salary on promotion.
- DBM National Budget Circular No. 601 (22 January 2026).
- Executive Order No. 64, s. 2024 (text on Lawphil).
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