Salary Guides
Educational resources to help you understand and use official wage data for career decisions.
All guides reference BLS OEWS data covering 800+ occupations across all 50 states.
Understanding BLS Wage Data
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics salary numbers mean, how they are collected, and why they differ from self-reported salary sites.
Using Salary Data for Negotiation
How to use BLS wage percentiles, metro-level data, and occupation comparisons to negotiate better compensation.
Highest-Paying Careers in America
Which occupations pay the most, what drives salary differences, and how wages vary across states and metro areas.
Best States for Salaries
Which US states pay the highest wages, what drives state-level pay differences, and how to find the best state for your career.
Salary vs. Cost of Living
How to adjust wages for cost of living, compare purchasing power across metros, and evaluate job offers in different cities.
Fastest Growing Occupations: Where the Jobs Are
Which occupations are growing fastest according to BLS projections, what drives job growth, and how to identify careers with strong long-term demand.
Entry-Level vs. Experienced Pay
How to use BLS wage percentiles to estimate entry-level vs. experienced pay, and what the spread between percentiles reveals about career earnings trajectories.
Methodology
Every guide on WageDex references the same underlying data: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 annual release. OEWS samples over 1.1 million establishments across all industries and publishes wage percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th) and mean wages for 800+ detailed occupations at national, state, and MSA levels.
Employment projections come from the BLS Employment Projections program, 2024–2034 cycle, which publishes ten-year growth rates, annual openings, and typical education/experience/training requirements per SOC code. Workplace safety data comes from the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). H-1B visa wages are sourced from the DOL Office of Foreign Labor Certification LCA Disclosure Data, FY 2025, and occupation skills/knowledge/tasks come from O*NET Online. Cost-of-living adjustments use BEA Regional Price Parities, 2023.
We present raw BLS percentiles without rescaling, do not extrapolate suppressed values, and flag occupation-geography pairs where BLS confidentiality thresholds prevent publication. Full source details are on the methodology page.