Burlington, NC Salaries

Highest published occupation medians in Burlington, NC - BLS OEWS May 2025

Observed metro pay change

What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025

May 2024 → May 2025
  • BLS's published All Occupations median in Burlington, NC moved from $40,980 in May 2024 to $44,010 in May 2025 (+7.4%).
  • Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
  • Burlington, NC sits +4.3 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.

Retail Salespersons shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Burlington, NC

Retail Salespersons publishes $29,630 here versus $35,410 nationally (-16.3%; 2,570metro-area jobs). Next is Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand at $43,750 locally versus $40,240 nationally (+8.7%).

  1. Retail Salespersons$29,630 in Burlington, NC sits 16.3% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (2,570 published local jobs).
  2. Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand$43,750 in Burlington, NC sits 8.7% above the national Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand median of $40,240 (2,660 published local jobs).

Retail Salespersons and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Burlington, NC; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.

BLS OEWS metro wage desk

MSA 15500 · Burlington, NC $53K mean

MEAN-TRACE · RPP-LOW · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-AHEAD · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-MOST

  • MEAN-TRACE #418/528
  • RPP-LOW 93.2
  • OCC-MID 263 occs
  • TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $350K
  • EMP-MIX Software Dev…
  • TREND-AHEAD +4.3 pp
  • PHOTO-FINISH Cape Girardeau,…
  • BOOK-MOST 260 rows · May 2025

Read with Cape Girardeau, MO-IL (+$12 on published-row mean) · Highest-paying careers

Instrument codes from this MSA’s OEWS published-row mean, BEA RPP, occupation book, employment lead, All Occupations pay change, and nearest peer — not a moving recommendation.

Published-row mean neighbourhood around Burlington, NC

Guayama, PR · lowest mean: $32KGuayama, PR · lowest mean$32KBurlington, NC · this MSA: $53KBurlington, NC · this MSA$53KCape Girardeau, MO-IL · near: $53KCape Girardeau, MO-IL · near$53KCentral Indiana nonm… · near: $53KCentral Indiana nonm… · near$53KTuscaloosa, AL · near: $53KTuscaloosa, AL · near$53KMichigan City-La Por… · near: $53KMichigan City-La Por… · near$53KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean: $119KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · high…$119K
Read the chart as text
Label Value
Guayama, PR · lowest mean $32K
Burlington, NC · this MSA $53K
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL · near $53K
Central Indiana nonm… · near $53K
Tuscaloosa, AL · near $53K
Michigan City-La Por… · near $53K
San Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean $119K

Employment scale inside Burlington, NC's top-pay list

Software Developers and Sales Managers lead published employment inside Burlington, NC's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.

  1. 1. Software Developers 270 jobs · $127,570
  2. 2. Sales Managers 200 jobs · $129,740
  3. 3. Medical and Health Services Managers 200 jobs · $110,090
  4. 4. Financial Managers 190 jobs · $134,760
  5. 5. Industrial Production Managers 180 jobs · $112,690
  6. 6. Managers, All Other 180 jobs · $112,090
  7. 7. Construction Managers 180 jobs · $104,470
  8. 8. Computer and Information Systems Managers 150 jobs · $165,490
  9. 9. Pharmacists 120 jobs · $130,730
  10. 10. Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers 110 jobs · $103,690
  11. 11. Computer Systems Analysts 100 jobs · $118,590
  12. 12. Physicians, All Other 90 jobs · $350,130
  13. 13. Marketing Managers 80 jobs · $164,770
  14. 14. Nurse Practitioners 80 jobs · $131,980
  15. 15. Administrative Services Managers 80 jobs · $104,010
  16. 16. Dentists, General 60 jobs · $166,330
  17. 17. Architectural and Engineering Managers 60 jobs · $150,080
  18. 18. Human Resources Managers 60 jobs · $135,220

Occupations Tracked

263

with wage data

Published-Row Mean

$53,033

employment-weighted, 260 complete rows

Top Salary

$350,130

Physicians, All Other

Cost of Living

93.2

7% below US avg

Price-level adjustment: Dividing the derived published-row mean of $53,033 by the metro RPP gives $56,905 on a national-price basis. This is not an after-tax income or a personal cost-of-living result.

Highest Paying Jobs in Burlington, NC

# Occupation Median Salary
1 Physicians, All Other $350,130
2 Dentists, General $166,330
3 Computer and Information Systems Managers $165,490
4 Marketing Managers $164,770
5 Natural Sciences Managers $163,020
6 Purchasing Managers $152,870
7 Architectural and Engineering Managers $150,080
8 Human Resources Managers $135,220
9 Financial Managers $134,760
10 Nurse Practitioners $131,980
11 Pharmacists $130,730
12 Veterinarians $129,800
13 Sales Managers $129,740
14 Software Developers $127,570
15 Electrical Engineers $119,650
16 Computer Systems Analysts $118,590
17 Computer Network Architects $118,130
18 Physician Assistants $113,200
19 Industrial Production Managers $112,690
20 Managers, All Other $112,090
21 Medical and Health Services Managers $110,090
22 Construction Managers $104,470
23 Administrative Services Managers $104,010
24 Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers $103,690
25 Information Security Analysts $103,140

Lowest Paying Jobs in Burlington, NC

Other BLS Wage Areas in NC

Other metropolitan or nonmetropolitan OEWS areas assigned to the same state. Cross-state pay and employment peers live in Nationwide similar metros below.

Nationwide metros with similar published-row mean pay or employment scale

Two OEWS peer sets outside NC. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($53,033 here) and summed published employment.

Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on BLS OEWS employment-weighted published-row mean wage and summed occupation employment. Employment peers exclude metros already listed in the mean-wage column so the two link sets stay distinct. Mean wage here is not a worker-level median.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average salary in Burlington, NC?
Across the 260 occupation rows for Burlington, NC with both a published mean wage and employment estimate, weighting each mean by employment gives $53,033/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The page has 263 occupations with a published median, a different denominator. This WageDex-derived benchmark is not a BLS-published All Occupations metro mean or median and does not state what a typical local worker earns. For contrast, averaging the medians of only the 25 highest-paying occupations gives $138,090, which describes the displayed top tier only.
Which published medians lead Burlington, NC?
Physicians, All Other holds the highest published median in Burlington, NC at $350,130/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). Next is Dentists, General at $166,330/year. These are occupation medians for this metropolitan statistical area, not employer offers.
What is the cost of living in Burlington, NC?
Burlington, NC has a Regional Price Parity of 93.2, meaning prices are 7% below the national average. Dividing the derived published-row mean of $53,033 by the RPP gives a national-price-equivalent benchmark of $56,905.
Where does BLS salary data for Burlington, NC come from?
All salary figures are Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS May 2025 estimates for this metropolitan statistical area. OEWS surveys approximately 1.1 million business establishments. Medians and means on this page are the published occupation-level estimates for the area — not job-board scrapes or modeled employer offers.

Last updated: May 2025 (BLS OEWS annual release). Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025. Cost-of-living index: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024.

Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Occupation rows use BLS OEWS May 2025. The metro benchmark is WageDex's employment-weighted mean of published occupation means; where BEA RPP is available, the price-level figure divides that benchmark by the published area parity. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

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