Northern Ireland Civil Service pay scales

The latest Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) scales I could confirm are the ones that ran from 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026. They start at £25,796 for an administrative assistant (AA) and reach £64,469 at the top of Grade 7. The Department of Finance has a “2026 pay award” page, but I could not confirm the 2026/27 scale values, so none are quoted.

The scales from 1 August 2025

The figures are annual, full-time and gross, taken from the NICS Members’ Guide, which reproduces the official non-industrial scales. AA is a single point.

Grade	Lowest point	Middle point	Top point
Administrative assistant (AA)	£25,796		£25,796
Administrative officer (AO)	£26,449	£27,271	£28,094
Executive officer 2 (EO2, shown as EOII)	£30,458	£30,777	£31,097
Executive officer 1 (EO1, shown as EOI)	£33,542	£33,886	£34,231
Staff officer (SO)	£37,694	£38,341	£38,990
Deputy principal (DP)	£47,304	£48,408	£49,515
Grade 7	£61,673	£63,072	£64,469

The EO2 starting figure matches the salary on the Department of Finance’s 2025 recruitment notice for around 500 EO2 posts, which was £30,458.

Above Grade 7, Grade 6 tops out at £77,904. The Senior Civil Service scale for assistant secretaries (Grade 5) runs from £88,268 to £97,070, and deputy secretaries (Grade 3) are on a scale from £113,060 to £123,946. I have left out the lower Grade 6 points because the published layout was not clear enough to quote them with confidence.

What changed on the 2025 scales

The Department of Finance describes the 2025 award as a 6% pay award. If you divide the August 2025 figures by the August 2024 ones you get 1.06 at every point, which fits that. The August 2024 guide also shows four points at deputy principal and Grade 7. The 2025 scales have three at each, so the bottom point on those two scales has gone.

The guide labels these scales as running from 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026. Anything from 1 April 2026 would need a new scale.

Where 2026/27 stands

The 2026/27 award should have taken effect from 1 April 2026. The Department of Finance lists a 2026 pay award page, published on 26 March 2026, with NICS pay bulletins dated March 2026 and August 2026. The text of those bulletins could not be read when this was checked, and I found no official statement of new scale values. One commercial pay site says the award has been held up by the Executive’s budget position, but that is a secondary source, so treat it as unverified.

NIPSA, the main civil service union, has said it is seeking inflation plus 3% on every scale point and allowance for each of three years from 2026/27. That is a union claim, not an offer.

Check the Department of Finance civil service pay page for the current bulletin. It lists every NICS pay award back to 2003. The same page says the NICS is committed to keeping pay arrangements in line with at least the voluntary real Living Wage, and that rates will be adjusted where necessary.

How NICS differs from the rest of the UK Civil Service

In Great Britain, departments set their own pay ranges, so the same grade can be paid differently in two departments. NICS has one scale for each grade across every department, so the salary line on an advert for an AO or EO2 post is the same wherever the post sits.

The grade names also differ. NICS has two executive grades (EO2 and EO1), plus staff officer and deputy principal, which sit between the executive grades and Grade 7. The Civil Service grades and pay guide covers the GB structure, and NICS grades explained goes through what each Northern Ireland grade means.

Leave and sick pay that go with the scales

The Members’ Guide gives annual leave of 25 days for new entrants and for staff below the Senior Civil Service with under five years’ service, rising to 30 days after five years. Sick absence is on full pay for up to six months in a 12-month period, then half pay for a further six months. Terms can change, so your contract and the NICS handbook are the authority.

Working out what you take home

Say you start as an EO2 on £30,458. Income tax is the same as in England and your pension contribution comes off too, so the figure that reaches your bank is well below the gross. The take-home pay calculator gives a monthly figure for any salary on the scales. The NICS alpha pension guide has the contribution rates.

Finding the official scales

The scales for a live competition appear in the advert, which links to the NICS recruitment website, and the Department of Finance publishes pay bulletins when a new award is implemented. The how to apply for NICS jobs guide covers the application side. The public sector jobs in Northern Ireland guide covers other NI employers.