📐 Methodology

Our Methodology

How we source, process, and present salary data.

Data Source

All salary data on USA Salaries is sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) program. The OES survey is a semi-annual mail survey of approximately 1.1 million business establishments that produces employment and wage estimates for about 800 occupations.

Current Dataset

Survey period: May 2025
Published: 2026
Coverage: All 50 states, District of Columbia, and U.S. territories
Methodology: Employer-reported data from nonfarm establishments
Sample size: ~1.1 million establishments over 3 years

Wage Estimates

The OES program produces the following wage estimates that we display:

Mean (average) wage — The arithmetic average of all reported wages
Median wage — The 50th percentile; half earn more, half earn less
10th percentile — Entry-level wages (10% earn less than this)
25th percentile — Lower-quarter wages
75th percentile — Upper-quarter wages
90th percentile — Top-earner wages (only 10% earn more)

State Salary Figures

State salaries come from the BLS OEWS state estimates for the same May 2025 release. Each occupation is matched to its Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code, and the state page shows the mean, median and 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentile annual wages, employment and location quotient that BLS publishes for that occupation in that state. National figures come from the BLS national estimates in the same way. Hourly equivalents are the annual mean divided by 2,080 hours.

State rankings compare only states for which BLS publishes a figure for the occupation. BLS does not publish every occupation in every state, usually because the estimate would not meet its reliability or confidentiality standards.

Where BLS publishes no state figure: the page shows an estimate calculated from the national BLS figure and a state cost-of-living multiplier. These pages are labelled as estimates, are kept out of search engines (noindex) and are not listed in the sitemap. Rankings and “highest-paying state” figures use only states with BLS data; where an occupation’s state table includes an estimate, it is marked “(est.)”.

Demand Indicators

Demand levels (Very High, High, Medium) are determined by total national employment in each occupation:

Very High: 500,000+ employed nationally
High: 200,000–499,999 employed nationally
Medium: 50,000–199,999 employed nationally

Limitations

OES data excludes self-employed workers
Wages do not include benefits, bonuses, or non-cash compensation
Some occupations have high margins of error due to small sample sizes
Data represents a point-in-time snapshot and may not reflect very recent market changes

Updates

We update our data annually when the BLS publishes new OES estimates, typically in spring of each year. The site is rebuilt automatically to reflect the latest available data.