Methodology and data sources

Source

All pay and employment figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, released in 2026. We use the national, state and metropolitan area files from bls.gov/oes. Trend charts use the same occupation code in the May 2020–May 2025 national and state files.

OEWS data is in the public domain. JobPayFacts isn’t affiliated with BLS.

What the numbers mean

• Average (mean) pay: total wages divided by the number of workers.
• Median pay: half of workers earn more and half earn less. When a few very high earners pull the average up, the median is the better guide to “typical” pay.
• Percentiles: 10% of workers earn less than the 10th percentile, and 10% earn more than the 90th.
• Hourly and yearly pay: BLS calculates yearly pay as hourly pay × 2,080 hours. For some jobs, such as teachers and pilots, BLS publishes only yearly pay; for others, such as actors and musicians, only hourly pay.
• Jobs (employment): the number of jobs, rounded to the nearest 10. It excludes self-employed workers.
• Pay is gross wages before taxes. It includes most commissions and shift pay but not overtime premiums, tips, bonuses or benefits such as health insurance.

Which pages we publish

• National pages: every detailed occupation where BLS published an average and median wage (830 jobs).
• State pages: a job in a state gets its own page only when BLS published the average and median wage and the employment estimate, at least 100 people work in the job there, the employment estimate’s relative standard error is 25% or lower and the wage estimate’s is 10% or lower. To keep the site focused, we then publish the combinations with the most workers. The rest still appear in the national tables and maps where BLS published a figure.
• Metro area pages: the same quality rules (with at least 200 workers), for metropolitan statistical areas, again prioritizing the combinations with the most workers.
• BLS marks some estimates as unavailable, for example to protect the confidentiality of employers or because the estimate wasn’t reliable enough, and some very high wages are reported only as above a top value. We never estimate or fill in those numbers.

Metro areas

Metro areas are the federal metropolitan statistical areas used by BLS. Some cross state lines, for example New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. We file each metro under its primary state, and it also appears on pages for the other states it covers.

Comparing years

BLS builds each year’s estimates from three years of survey data and cautions that OEWS isn’t designed as a time series. Changes over time can partly reflect changes in survey methods or occupation codes. Treat trend charts as a guide, not an exact measure of raises.

Updates

BLS releases new OEWS estimates every spring. We update the site when a new release comes out. The current data is May 2025.

Corrections

If you spot an error, please contact us.