WageDex guide
Entry-Level vs. Experienced Pay
How to use BLS wage percentiles without mistaking a cross-sectional distribution for a career timeline.
Figures use BLS OEWS (May 2025); percentile definitions follow the agency's current methodology. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , OEWS percentile wages
The short answer
OEWS percentiles rank wages, not career stages. Among the 8 recognizable roles sampled here, General and Operations Managers has the widest observed 10th-to-90th spread at 5.1× ($50,090 to $253,390). The table cannot tell us how much of that difference comes from experience.
- 5.1×
- General and Operations Managers (widest)
- $50,090
- 10th percentile
- $253,390
- 90th percentile
Experience may matter, but location, industry, employer, specialty, credentials, schedule, and incentive pay can also shape the observed distribution.
What Percentiles Do and Do Not Show
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentile wage boundaries. At the 10th-percentile value, 10% of workers earn less and 90% earn more; at the 90th-percentile value, 90% earn less and 10% earn more.
These are cross-sectional estimates across workers in the same occupation. OEWS does not attach years of experience, seniority, education, specialty, employer, or individual career history to each percentile. A lower percentile is therefore not an “entry wage,” and an upper percentile is not a measured “senior wage.”
WageDex shows the full percentile breakdown for every occupation. Start with the careers directory to compare spreads across fields.
Wide Spreads vs. Narrow Spreads
The ratio between the 10th and 90th percentile wages describes how dispersed pay is across the reported occupation:
How wide is the reported wage distribution?
90th-percentile wage as a multiple of the 10th percentile, by occupation, BLS OEWS
- General and Operations Man…
General and Operations Managers
5 × 10th percentile
- Lawyers
Lawyers
5 × 10th percentile
- Financial Managers
Financial Managers
3 × 10th percentile
- Marketing Managers
Marketing Managers
3 × 10th percentile
- Software Developers
Software Developers
3 × 10th percentile
- Accountants and Auditors
Accountants and Auditors
3 × 10th percentile
- Electricians
Electricians
3 × 10th percentile
- Registered Nurses 2
Registered Nurses
2 × 10th percentile
- Wide spreads (3x+ ratio): Reported wages vary substantially across the workers, employers, industries, locations, specialties, and job characteristics represented in the estimate.
- Moderate spreads (2-3x): The upper boundary is two to three times the lower boundary, but OEWS alone cannot assign that gap to experience.
- Narrow spreads (1.5-2x): Reported wages are more compressed across the occupation. This still does not predict an individual's growth path.
Use the spread to frame the range of reported pay and to identify which local, industry, or role-specific evidence you need next. Do not use it as a forecast of how one worker's salary will grow.
Compare the Matching Geography First
A national percentile combines employers and workers across very different labor markets. Before positioning an offer inside the range, compare the same occupation in the relevant state or metro and keep the reference period consistent.
WageDex shows wages by state and metro area. A local median or percentile is a market benchmark, not a conclusion about the applicant's experience or the employer's appropriate offer.
Using Percentile Data for Career Planning
The full percentile distribution is more useful than a single salary number for several career decisions:
- Choosing a career: Compare medians and spreads across occupations, but do not treat the 90th percentile as a promised career ceiling.
- Negotiating salary: Use the matching occupation-and-area distribution to establish market context, then support your requested position with role scope, credentials, performance, and competing evidence. See the salary negotiation guide.
- Planning a relocation: Compare percentiles in your current and target markets. The salary vs. cost of living guide explains how to adjust for purchasing power.
- Evaluating a career change: Use the spread as one description of current market variation, not as a lifetime-earnings forecast.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the 10th and 90th percentile wages represent?
The 10th percentile is the wage boundary below which 10% of workers fall; the 90th percentile is the boundary below which 90% fall. The spread describes observed pay variation across all workers in the occupation. OEWS does not identify which workers are new, experienced, senior, or employed by a particular type of firm.
Why do some occupations have a wider pay range than others?
A wage distribution can combine workers across locations, industries, employers, schedules, specialties, credentials, and experience levels. Those factors may contribute to a wide spread, but the OEWS percentile table does not isolate their individual effects. The spread should therefore be read as variation to investigate, not as proof of one cause.
How can I estimate what I would earn as an entry-level worker?
OEWS alone cannot produce an entry-level estimate because it does not publish wages by years of experience or work level. Use the occupation and local wage distribution as a market benchmark, then compare the offer with the role, location, industry, credentials, schedule, and employer. BLS Modeled Wage Estimates are the separate federal product designed to estimate pay by work level.
Does the BLS data account for education level within an occupation?
Not directly. BLS OEWS data reports wages for all workers in an occupation regardless of education level. However, the BLS Employment Projections program provides "typical entry-level education" for each occupation, which WageDex shows in career card and job detail pages. Within an occupation, workers with higher education may cluster in higher percentiles, but the OEWS survey does not break wages down by education level.
How quickly do wages grow with experience?
This dataset cannot answer that question. Percentiles compare different workers in one reference period; they do not follow the same workers through a career. Measuring wage growth by years of experience requires longitudinal data. The separate BLS Modeled Wage Estimates publish estimates by job work level, which reflects duties and responsibilities rather than a worker’s tenure or career timeline.
Should I compare wages across occupations using the median or the full range?
Use both, but keep the claims bounded. The median gives the midpoint of the observed wage distribution, while the percentiles show how dispersed reported pay is. A high 90th percentile is not a guaranteed career ceiling, and a wide spread does not prove that experience caused the difference.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey, current as of May 2025, is the source: WageDex tracks 831 occupations across 582 U.S. states and metro areas, comprising 36,367 state-level wage records, according to the same federal survey.
Sources
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Salary data should be one factor among many in career decisions.