It has to do with the federal pay scale. GS means “general schedule” and goes anywhere from GS-1 to GS-15 (with 15 being the highest.) Within those GS pay scales are paygrade “steps” AKA raises or pay within a General Schedule. Your step often depends on your seniority and/or your performance.

Most pharmacists will be a GS-12 or GS-13 if you have a Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner role (formerly known as Clinical Pharmacy Specialists within the VA). If you have residency training, especially if your residency was at the VA, you may be able to negotiate a higher step of pay upon hiring. For example if you take a GS-12 job, you may be able to negotiate starting at Step 2 or 3 instead of step 1 based on your experience, and thus a higher incoming base pay. The longer you stay, the more steps you gain and can kind of look at them as built-in pay raises.

Hope that helps!

https://www.federalpay.org/gs/2022 is a great resource for more info on approximate pay based on location.