https://www.federalpay.org/gs/2021/GS-12

GS-12 is the 12th paygrade in the General Schedule (GS) payscale, the payscale used to determine the salaries of most civilian government employees. The GS-12 pay grade is generally held by white-collar employees in mid-level positions. GS-12 is the highest grade one can achieve before the position becomes "Career Competitive" meaning that the position must be listed on USAJobs.gov and be available any qualified U.S. citizen to apply. Because of positions receive above GS-12 are competitive and thus harder to obtain many scientists and engineers will reach GS-12 within the first 3 to 5 years of their career and then spend significantly longer as a GS-12 before being promoted.