Salary by Occupation
Twenty common occupations, with national pay figures and state-by-state breakdowns.
All figures below are the employment-weighted aggregate across the 50 states and DC, computed from BLS OEWS May 2024 state-level tables. Employment is the count of wage and salary workers (self-employed excluded).
| Occupation | SOC | Mean wage | Median wage | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accountant and Auditor | 13-2011 | $93,426 | $84,407 | 1,447,300 |
| Civil Engineer | 17-2051 | $106,620 | $99,989 | 342,810 |
| Construction Laborer | 47-2061 | $51,252 | $47,915 | 1,057,640 |
| Data Scientist | 15-2051 | $124,489 | $115,903 | 233,690 |
| Dental Hygienist | 29-1292 | $93,877 | $94,162 | 218,950 |
| Electrician | 47-2111 | $69,619 | $67,159 | 742,710 |
| Elementary School Teacher | 25-2021 | $69,794 | $67,847 | 1,393,260 |
| Financial and Investment Analyst | 13-2051 | $116,549 | $101,411 | 340,150 |
| Firefighter | 33-2011 | $63,768 | $61,399 | 325,320 |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Driver | 53-3032 | $58,397 | $56,248 | 2,070,390 |
| Lawyer | 23-1011 | $182,406 | $150,734 | 740,060 |
| Marketing Manager | 11-2021 | $171,227 | $155,439 | 380,630 |
| Mechanical Engineer | 17-2141 | $109,956 | $104,651 | 285,800 |
| Pharmacist | 29-1051 | $137,218 | $140,121 | 329,050 |
| Physicians, All Other | 29-1228 | — | — | — |
| Plumber, Pipefitter, Steamfitter | 47-2152 | $69,941 | $66,431 | 456,180 |
| Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer | 33-3051 | $79,321 | $79,360 | 667,020 |
| Project Management Specialist | 13-1082 | $108,098 | $100,946 | 1,004,290 |
| Registered Nurse | 29-1141 | $98,425 | $94,511 | 3,282,320 |
| Software Developer | 15-1252 | $144,608 | $138,520 | 1,650,360 |
How the national figures are computed
BLS publishes an official national OEWS table, which we do not redistribute directly. The “mean wage” shown here is the employment-weighted average across the state-level rows: Σ(state employment × state mean) ÷ Σ(state employment). This is close to the official national figure but not identical — the state-level file handles suppression differently from the national file, and non-reporting establishments affect the state and national rollups slightly differently. See the methodology for details.