Careers: Master's degree
40 occupations requiring master's degree, sorted by median salary.
This page lists the 40 BLS-tracked occupations assigned Master'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 Nurse Anesthetists at $236,590/year, projected to grow 9% through 2034. The equal-weighted mean of the published occupation medians in this category is $96,280. It is a comparison of occupation medians, not a worker-level wage or the return from obtaining a credential.
17 of 40 occupations in this BLS category have a published median above $100,000 per year. 35 occupations in this list are projected to grow through 2034 per BLS Employment Projections, while 5 are flat or declining. Summing the published projected annual openings across the list gives approximately 316,800. 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 | Nurse Anesthetists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $236,590 |
| 2 | Industrial-Organizational Psychologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $193,950 |
| 3 | Political Scientists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $142,080 |
| 4 | Computer and Information Research Scientists Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $140,300 |
| 5 | Physician Assistants Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $135,880 |
| 6 | Nurse Midwives Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $134,040 |
| 7 | Nurse Practitioners Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $132,300 |
| 8 | Mathematicians Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $126,710 |
| 9 | Economists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $124,720 |
| 10 | Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $115,210 |
| 11 | Psychologists, All Other Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $110,840 |
| 12 | Sociologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $106,030 |
| 13 | Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary Management Occupations | $105,870 |
| 14 | Statisticians Computer and Mathematical Occupations | $105,650 |
| 15 | Education Administrators, Postsecondary Management Occupations | $104,590 |
| 16 | Occupational Therapists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $100,330 |
| 17 | Genetic Counselors Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $100,040 |
| 18 | Speech-Language Pathologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $97,870 |
| 19 | School Psychologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $95,990 |
| 20 | Urban and Regional Planners Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $89,320 |
| 21 | Epidemiologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $87,220 |
| 22 | Orthotists and Prosthetists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $81,110 |
| 23 | Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $78,620 |
| 24 | Instructional Coordinators Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $77,440 |
| 25 | Historians Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $76,750 |
| 26 | Acupuncturists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $76,040 |
| 27 | Anthropologists and Archeologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $70,770 |
| 28 | Survey Researchers Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | $69,460 |
| 29 | Librarians and Media Collections Specialists Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $68,270 |
| 30 | Healthcare Social Workers Community and Social Service Occupations | $67,880 |
| 31 | Marriage and Family Therapists Community and Social Service Occupations | $66,940 |
| 32 | Archivists Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $64,550 |
| 33 | Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors Community and Social Service Occupations | $64,330 |
| 34 | Curators Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $63,420 |
| 35 | Athletic Trainers Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | $62,520 |
| 36 | Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers Community and Social Service Occupations | $60,280 |
| 37 | Farm and Home Management Educators Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | $60,220 |
| 38 | Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors Community and Social Service Occupations | $59,350 |
| 39 | Counselors, All Other Community and Social Service Occupations | $50,860 |
| 40 | Rehabilitation Counselors Community and Social Service Occupations | $46,850 |
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.