Careers: Doctoral or professional degree
73 occupations requiring doctoral or professional degree, sorted by median salary.
This page lists the 73 BLS-tracked occupations assigned Doctoral or professional 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 Pediatric Surgeons at $559,030/year, projected to grow 2% through 2034. The equal-weighted mean of the published occupation medians in this category is $167,092. It is a comparison of occupation medians, not a worker-level wage or the return from obtaining a credential.
42 of 73 occupations in this BLS category have a published median above $100,000 per year. 69 occupations in this list are projected to grow through 2034 per BLS Employment Projections, while 4 are flat or declining. Summing the published projected annual openings across the list gives approximately 236,300. 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 | Pediatric Surgeons Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $559,030 |
| 2 | Cardiologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $496,010 |
| 3 | Radiologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $420,860 |
| 4 | Surgeons, All Other Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $414,010 |
| 5 | Anesthesiologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $391,490 |
| 6 | Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $358,550 |
| 7 | Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $352,220 |
| 8 | Emergency Medicine Physicians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $335,550 |
| 9 | Dermatologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $328,730 |
| 10 | Physicians, Pathologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $312,400 |
| 11 | Prosthodontists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $311,180 |
| 12 | Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $300,080 |
| 13 | Obstetricians and Gynecologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $292,910 |
| 14 | Orthodontists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $289,140 |
| 15 | Psychiatrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $281,870 |
| 16 | Physicians, All Other Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $265,930 |
| 17 | General Internal Medicine Physicians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $256,560 |
| 18 | Neurologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $248,560 |
| 19 | Family Medicine Physicians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $244,180 |
| 20 | Dentists, All Other Specialists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $224,990 |
| 21 | Pediatricians, General Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $210,040 |
| 22 | Physicists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $172,250 |
| 23 | Dentists, General Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $170,950 |
| 24 | Podiatrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $160,300 |
| 25 | Lawyers Legal Occupations | $159,670 |
| 26 | Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates Legal Occupations | $153,990 |
| 27 | Pharmacists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $140,910 |
| 28 | Optometrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $136,570 |
| 29 | Veterinarians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $130,100 |
| 30 | Astronomers Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $128,820 |
| 31 | Law Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $128,500 |
| 32 | Biochemists and Biophysicists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $127,410 |
| 33 | Economics Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $123,920 |
| 34 | Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers Legal Occupations | $117,860 |
| 35 | Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $109,270 |
| 36 | Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $107,310 |
| 37 | Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $103,410 |
| 38 | Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $103,170 |
| 39 | Physical Therapists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $102,760 |
| 40 | Forestry and Conservation Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $101,420 |
| 41 | Clinical and Counseling Psychologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $100,580 |
| 42 | Physics Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $100,310 |
| 43 | Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $99,650 |
| 44 | Business Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $99,080 |
| 45 | Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $98,700 |
| 46 | Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $98,070 |
| 47 | Geography Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $97,590 |
| 48 | Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $96,980 |
| 49 | Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $96,870 |
| 50 | Audiologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $95,780 |
| 51 | Environmental Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $94,980 |
| 52 | Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $93,250 |
| 53 | Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $85,020 |
| 54 | Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $84,620 |
| 55 | Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $84,290 |
| 56 | History Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $83,820 |
| 57 | Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $80,340 |
| 58 | Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $80,340 |
| 59 | Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $80,260 |
| 60 | Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $80,250 |
| 61 | Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $79,940 |
| 62 | Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $79,350 |
| 63 | Chiropractors Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $79,200 |
| 64 | English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $78,760 |
| 65 | Communications Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $78,580 |
| 66 | Postsecondary Teachers, All Other Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $77,640 |
| 67 | Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $77,570 |
| 68 | Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $77,270 |
| 69 | Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $76,590 |
| 70 | Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $75,870 |
| 71 | Education Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $75,350 |
| 72 | Social Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary, All Other Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $72,990 |
| 73 | Judicial Law Clerks Legal Occupations | $64,920 |
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.