Our Methodology

Data Source

All salary data on WageDex comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, the authoritative federal source for occupation-level wage data in the United States.

The OEWS survey is a semi-annual mail survey of non-farm establishments. It samples over 1.1 million establishments across all industries and produces employment and wage estimates for more than 800 detailed occupations. Participation is mandatory for sampled establishments under federal statistical law, which means the data reflects actual employer-reported wages rather than self-reported figures.

Three additional federal/public datasets supplement the core OEWS wage data:

  • BLS Employment Projections (2024-2034): Ten-year employment growth, projected openings, and education/training requirements for each occupation, published biennially by the BLS Employment Projections program.
  • BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) (2023 data): Occupation-level fatality and non-fatal injury rates, used to compute the danger index shown on WageDex's safety pages.
  • O*NET (version 29.0): Skill importance/level ratings, work tasks, and knowledge-area scores for each occupation, developed by the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET program and used on WageDex's skills and job-detail pages.

Data Vintage

WageDex displays data from the May 2025 OEWS release - the most recent complete annual dataset published by the BLS. The BLS collects survey data over six semi-annual panels and publishes combined estimates annually, typically in the spring following the reference period. We update our database when new annual estimates are released.

Employment Projections are updated biennially (currently the 2024-2034 cycle); CFOI/SOII safety data is currently the 2023 annual release (BLS's most recent complete year); O*NET skill/task/knowledge ratings are currently version 29.0. Each of these updates on its own independent federal release schedule, separate from the annual OEWS wage refresh above.

Free to reuse with attribution: download the full occupation wage dataset (CSV), the same national median/mean/percentile figures every occupation page renders, for every detailed occupation in the OEWS classification.

Wage Estimates Explained

WageDex presents five wage percentiles for each occupation and geography:

  • 10th percentile: Entry-level benchmark, 10% of workers in this occupation earn less than this amount.
  • 25th percentile: Lower-quartile wage, useful for understanding the floor of typical compensation.
  • Median (50th percentile): The midpoint wage, half of workers earn more and half earn less. The most commonly cited salary benchmark.
  • 75th percentile: Upper-quartile wage, experienced or specialized workers often fall here.
  • 90th percentile: Top-end benchmark, 10% of workers in this occupation earn more than this amount.

Mean (average) wages are also provided. Note that mean wages are typically higher than median wages because high earners pull the average upward. The median is generally the better benchmark for "what does a typical worker earn."

Geographic Coverage

The OEWS program publishes estimates at four geographic levels:

  • National: All wage estimates for the United States as a whole.
  • State: All 50 states plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands).
  • Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs): Over 580 metro areas as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
  • Nonmetropolitan areas: Rural regions outside of defined MSAs, grouped by state.

Not all occupations have published estimates at every geographic level, the BLS suppresses estimates with high relative standard errors or fewer than a minimum number of reporting establishments to protect confidentiality.

Occupation Classification

Occupations are classified using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system, maintained by the Office of Management and Budget and used by all federal statistical agencies. WageDex uses the 2018 SOC taxonomy, which organizes occupations into 23 major groups, 98 minor groups, and 867 detailed occupations.

Processing Pipeline

Raw OEWS data files are downloaded from the BLS website and processed as follows:

  • Parses all geographic levels (national, state, MSA, nonmetro) from BLS flat files
  • Normalizes occupation codes and titles to the 2018 SOC taxonomy
  • Computes national percentile rankings for each occupation by median wage
  • Computes state cost-of-living adjustments using regional price parities (RPPs) from the BEA for purchasing-power comparisons
  • Joins BLS Employment Projections (2024-2034) growth rates, projected annual openings, and education/training requirements to each occupation by SOC code
  • Joins BLS CFOI/SOII fatality and injury rates to compute an occupation-level safety/danger index
  • Joins O*NET skill, task, and knowledge ratings to each occupation by SOC code for the skills-by-salary pages
  • Loads into a dataset optimized for fast occupation and location lookups

Limitations

  • OEWS data covers wage-and-salary workers only, self-employed workers, business owners, and gig workers are not included.
  • Data is based on survey estimates with sampling error, metro-level estimates for smaller areas have wider confidence intervals than national estimates.
  • Wages do not include non-wage compensation (benefits, equity, bonuses) unless a specific occupation's data captures total compensation.
  • Suppressed estimates (shown as unavailable) indicate the BLS did not publish data for that occupation-location combination due to insufficient sample size or confidentiality thresholds.
  • Wages reflect the BLS reference period (May 2025) and do not capture wage changes that occurred after that date.

Not Affiliated

WageDex is not affiliated with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or any government agency. We are an independent portal that transforms publicly available BLS data into an accessible, searchable format.