US Occupation Salary Data

Average wages, salary ranges, and employment data for 100+ occupations β€” sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Frequently Asked Questions

Understanding BLS occupational wage statistics

What is the source of the salary data?

All salary data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) program, which surveys approximately 1.1 million businesses annually to produce occupational employment and wage estimates.

What is the difference between mean and median salary?

The mean (average) salary is calculated by adding all salaries and dividing by the number of workers. The median salary is the midpoint β€” half of workers earn more, half earn less. The median is often a better indicator of "typical" pay because it is less affected by very high or very low outliers.

What do wage percentiles mean?

Wage percentiles show the salary distribution within an occupation. The 10th percentile means 10% of workers earn less than that amount. The 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentiles provide a full picture of the salary range you can expect in a given field.

How often is BLS salary data updated?

The BLS publishes OES data annually, typically in the spring for the prior May survey period. The data on this site reflects the most recently available national survey year.

Do these salaries include bonuses and benefits?

No. BLS OES wage data includes only straight-time gross pay, including base rate pay, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, and incentive pay. It excludes overtime pay, tips, irregular bonuses, and the value of benefits like health insurance or retirement contributions.

How do I find salary data for my specific state?

The data currently shown is national-level data. BLS also publishes state-level OES data. We plan to add state-by-state salary breakdowns in a future update.

About BLS Occupational Wage Statistics

This service provides occupational employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) program. The OES survey covers approximately 1.1 million establishments and provides wage estimates for over 800 occupations across the United States.

Data includes annual mean wages, annual median wages, hourly mean wages, employment levels, and full wage percentile distributions (10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles). This helps job seekers, career counselors, and researchers understand typical compensation at every level within an occupation.