Browse WageDex

How To Use Each Browse Lens

WageDex organizes the same underlying Bureau of Labor Statistics wage and employment dataset into nine complementary lenses because no single navigation path fits every question. If you already know the occupation you want salary data for, the alphabetical occupation index is the fastest route. If you are exploring a career direction, the SOC category browser groups related occupations into 22 major groups so you can compare adjacent jobs side by side. If your question is geographic – for example, “Which states pay the most for software engineers?” or “What does a registered nurse earn in my metro?” – start with the state or metropolitan area index instead. Each route eventually links to the same detail page, so you do not need to pick the “right” entry point; you can switch lenses on any page using the breadcrumbs and the in-page navigation.

Which Lens Best Answers Common Questions

Salary benchmarking. Use the occupation A–Z index or the highest-paying rankings page when you want to know what a job typically pays at the national level. Each detail page shows the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentile wages so you can see both the midpoint and the realistic range. The percentile spread matters: an occupation with a $48,000 median but a $95,000 90th percentile rewards seniority and specialization very differently than an occupation with a $48,000 median and a $58,000 90th percentile.

Local market context. If you are negotiating a salary or evaluating a relocation, the state index and metropolitan area index are the relevant lenses. National medians can be misleading in either direction – a metro pay premium of 15–25% over the national median is common in coastal and high-cost cities, while many heartland metros pay 10–20% below the national median for the same occupation. Comparing local pay to local cost of living is essential before drawing conclusions about real purchasing power.

Career exploration and outlook. Use the rankings, outlook, and career-explorer lenses when the question is “Where is the job market heading?” rather than “What does this job pay today?” The fastest-growing rankings page surfaces occupations with the highest projected 10-year growth rate, while the most-openings rankings surfaces occupations with the largest absolute annual hiring need (which often includes large, slower-growing fields where replacement demand alone creates substantial openings). Both views are useful; pairing them prevents the common mistake of chasing high growth rates in tiny occupations with few actual jobs.

Safety and working conditions. The safety browser uses the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses to surface the fatality rate and non-fatal injury rate per occupation. This lens is often overlooked when comparing compensation, but it materially changes the picture for several high-paying skilled trades and transportation occupations where the wage premium partly compensates for elevated workplace risk.

Methodology

Every browse lens on this page queries the same underlying dataset: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 annual release. OEWS samples approximately 1.1 million establishments across all industries and publishes wage percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th) and mean wages for 800+ detailed SOC occupations at national, state, and metropolitan statistical area levels.

Growth and outlook pages draw from BLS Employment Projections program, 2024–2034 cycle, which publishes 10-year growth rates, annual openings, and typical education/experience/training requirements per occupation. Safety pages use BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), 2023.

Wages reported here exclude employer-provided benefits, bonuses, and overtime. BLS suppresses state-level estimates where worker counts are small enough to risk identifying individual employers; those rows are omitted rather than imputed. State and metro estimates are produced by combining three semi-annual survey panels (six total panels over three years) to stabilize small-area estimates; this means the local figures lag the national release by roughly six months and reflect a longer averaging window than the national headline number. For full sampling, collection, suppression rules, and SOC-to-occupation crosswalk details, see the methodology page. Verify any specific data point at the source agency by visiting bls.gov/oes.