Careers: Bachelor's degree
100 occupations requiring bachelor's degree, sorted by median salary.
This page lists the 100 BLS-tracked occupations assigned Bachelor's degree in the BLS “typical education needed for entry” category, ranked by national median salary from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 release. Leading the list is Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers at $232,140/year, projected to grow 4% through 2034. The equal-weighted mean of the published occupation medians in this category is $114,404. It is a comparison of occupation medians, not a worker-level wage or the return from obtaining a credential.
66 of 100 occupations in this BLS category have a published median above $100,000 per year. 89 occupations in this list are projected to grow through 2034 per BLS Employment Projections, while 11 are flat or declining. Summing the published projected annual openings across the list gives approximately 2,186,500. This is an occupation-level projection sum, not a live vacancy count or an individual entry probability. Workplace safety grades shown on each row derive from BLS CFOI fatality rates and SOII injury rates, useful for roles involving fieldwork, construction, transportation, or healthcare where physical hazard matters alongside compensation.
“Typical education needed for entry” is the BLS category describing the education workers typically need to enter an occupation. It is not a legal or employer-specific requirement and does not describe every worker. Many roles on this list have alternative pathways through experience, certifications, portfolio-based entry, or higher credentials. Those pathways are context for further research; this ranking does not measure their effect on pay. Use this ranking to compare occupations that share the same BLS entry-education assignment, then open a national profile to inspect its published percentile boundaries, state and local-area variation, and employment projections. The assignment does not measure your current credential, a program's cost, or the best route for an individual. OEWS percentiles are wage boundaries, not entry or senior work-level estimates. OEWS includes tips, commissions, incentive pay, and production bonuses. Employer benefits, overtime premiums, stock compensation, and nonproduction bonuses are excluded, so compare those parts of an offer separately.
| # | Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers Transportation and Material Moving Occupations | $232,140 |
| 2 | Chief Executives Management Occupations | $213,990 |
| 3 | Computer and Information Systems Managers Management Occupations | $175,140 |
| 4 | Architectural and Engineering Managers Management Occupations | $171,270 |
| 5 | Natural Sciences Managers Management Occupations | $167,220 |
| 6 | Marketing Managers Management Occupations | $166,790 |
| 7 | Financial Managers Management Occupations | $166,570 |
| 8 | Computer Hardware Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $161,740 |
| 9 | Human Resources Managers Management Occupations | $149,280 |
| 10 | Compensation and Benefits Managers Management Occupations | $149,230 |
| 11 | Sales Managers Management Occupations | $148,270 |
| 12 | Purchasing Managers Management Occupations | $148,080 |
| 13 | Medical Dosimetrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $147,470 |
| 14 | Public Relations Managers Management Occupations | $146,910 |
| 15 | Petroleum Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $144,910 |
| 16 | Managers, All Other Management Occupations | $141,900 |
| 17 | Database Architects Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $139,500 |
| 18 | Software Developers Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $135,980 |
| 19 | Aerospace Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $134,960 |
| 20 | Computer Network Architects Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $134,050 |
| 21 | Nuclear Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $133,970 |
| 22 | Advertising and Promotions Managers Management Occupations | $133,660 |
| 23 | Training and Development Managers Management Occupations | $133,000 |
| 24 | Electronics Engineers, Except Computer Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $130,220 |
| 25 | Actuaries Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $130,000 |
| 26 | Information Security Analysts Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $129,180 |
| 27 | Industrial Production Managers Management Occupations | $126,060 |
| 28 | Fundraising Managers Management Occupations | $125,470 |
| 29 | Chemical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $125,040 |
| 30 | Sales Engineers Sales and Related Occupations | $124,900 |
| 31 | Medical and Health Services Managers Management Occupations | $123,860 |
| 32 | Engineers, All Other Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $122,930 |
| 33 | Physical Scientists, All Other Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $122,570 |
| 34 | Electrical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $120,630 |
| 35 | Data Scientists Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $120,230 |
| 36 | Materials Scientists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $117,790 |
| 37 | Financial Risk Specialists Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $117,330 |
| 38 | Computer Occupations, All Other Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $116,580 |
| 39 | Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $115,160 |
| 40 | Construction Managers Management Occupations | $114,990 |
| 41 | Art Directors Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | $114,850 |
| 42 | Administrative Services Managers Management Occupations | $114,130 |
| 43 | Materials Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $112,860 |
| 44 | Marine Engineers and Naval Architects Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $112,230 |
| 45 | Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $109,370 |
| 46 | Environmental Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $107,110 |
| 47 | Facilities Managers Management Occupations | $106,660 |
| 48 | Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $106,220 |
| 49 | Computer Systems Analysts Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $105,850 |
| 50 | General and Operations Managers Management Occupations | $105,770 |
| 51 | Personal Financial Advisors Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $105,070 |
| 52 | Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products Sales and Related Occupations | $104,920 |
| 53 | Database Administrators Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $104,620 |
| 54 | Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $104,300 |
| 55 | Mechanical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $104,110 |
| 56 | Web and Digital Interface Designers Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $104,000 |
| 57 | Financial and Investment Analysts Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $102,740 |
| 58 | Industrial Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $102,440 |
| 59 | Project Management Specialists Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $102,320 |
| 60 | Geographers Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $102,040 |
| 61 | Special Effects Artists and Animators Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | $102,030 |
| 62 | Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $101,920 |
| 63 | Management Analysts Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $101,860 |
| 64 | Social Scientists and Related Workers, All Other Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $101,110 |
| 65 | Civil Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $100,840 |
| 66 | Computer Programmers Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $100,390 |
| 67 | Architects, Except Landscape and Naval Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $99,280 |
| 68 | Network and Computer Systems Administrators Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $99,130 |
| 69 | Atmospheric and Space Scientists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $99,070 |
| 70 | Biological Scientists, All Other Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $98,920 |
| 71 | Agricultural Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $98,590 |
| 72 | Registered Nurses Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $97,550 |
| 73 | Hydrologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $96,600 |
| 74 | Labor Relations Specialists Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $95,420 |
| 75 | Education Administrators, All Other Management Occupations | $95,200 |
| 76 | Financial Examiners Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $94,160 |
| 77 | Life Scientists, All Other Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $93,750 |
| 78 | Emergency Management Directors Management Occupations | $93,330 |
| 79 | Web Developers Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $92,650 |
| 80 | Budget Analysts Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $91,640 |
| 81 | Chemists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $91,240 |
| 82 | Technical Writers Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | $90,390 |
| 83 | Producers and Directors Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | $90,360 |
| 84 | Occupational Health and Safety Specialists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $90,150 |
| 85 | Operations Research Analysts Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $88,940 |
| 86 | Food Scientists and Technologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $88,720 |
| 87 | Microbiologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $87,990 |
| 88 | Commercial and Industrial Designers Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | $83,910 |
| 89 | Accountants and Auditors Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $83,680 |
| 90 | Credit Analysts Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $83,510 |
| 91 | Business Operations Specialists, All Other Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $83,050 |
| 92 | Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $82,890 |
| 93 | Logisticians Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $82,320 |
| 94 | Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $82,220 |
| 95 | Mathematical Science Occupations, All Other Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $81,490 |
| 96 | Cartographers and Photogrammetrists Architecture and Engineering Occupations | $81,390 |
| 97 | Insurance Underwriters Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $81,370 |
| 98 | Financial Specialists, All Other Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $81,100 |
| 99 | Fashion Designers Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | $80,960 |
| 100 | Compliance Officers Business and Financial Operations Occupations | $80,730 |
Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Education, growth, and openings use BLS Employment Projections for 2024–2034; wages use BLS OEWS May 2025; safety fields cite BLS CFOI/SOII where present. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.