Fort Smith, AR-OK Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 85.9) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Fort Smith, AR-OK moved from $38,340 in May 2024 to $39,560 in May 2025 (+3.2%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Fort Smith, AR-OK sits +0.1 pp near that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
General and Operations Managers shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Fort Smith, AR-OK
General and Operations Managers publishes $70,330 here versus $105,770 nationally (-33.5%; 2,320metro-area jobs). Next is Fast Food and Counter Workers at $23,760 locally versus $31,200 nationally (-23.8%).
- General and Operations Managers$70,330 in Fort Smith, AR-OK sits 33.5% below the national General and Operations Managers median of $105,770 (2,320 published local jobs).
- Fast Food and Counter Workers$23,760 in Fort Smith, AR-OK sits 23.8% below the national Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $31,200 (2,760 published local jobs).
- Home Health and Personal Care Aides$28,410 in Fort Smith, AR-OK sits 20.6% below the national Home Health and Personal Care Aides median of $35,800 (2,240 published local jobs).
- Retail Salespersons$28,350 in Fort Smith, AR-OK sits 19.9% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (2,880 published local jobs).
General and Operations Managers and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Fort Smith, AR-OK; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 22900 · Fort Smith, AR-OK $50K mean
MEAN-TRACE · RPP-QUIET · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-TRACE #479/528
- RPP-QUIET 85.9
- OCC-MID 302 occs
- TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $258K
- EMP-MIX Financial Ma…
- TREND-INLINE +0.1 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Cleveland, TN
- BOOK-FULL 301 rows · May 2025
Read with Cleveland, TN ($59 on published-row mean) · Salary vs. cost of living
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 Fort Smith, AR-OK
Where Fort Smith, AR-OK already employs the upper wage tier
Financial Managers and Managers, All Other lead published employment inside Fort Smith, AR-OK's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Financial Managers 460 jobs · $104,990
- 2. Managers, All Other 360 jobs · $98,500
- 3. Nurse Practitioners 270 jobs · $129,270
- 4. Sales Managers 230 jobs · $99,110
- 5. Industrial Production Managers 220 jobs · $106,520
- 6. Chief Executives 210 jobs · $114,550
- 7. Software Developers 200 jobs · $114,140
- 8. Computer and Information Systems Managers 190 jobs · $114,760
- 9. Physicians, All Other 170 jobs · $258,130
- 10. Pharmacists 160 jobs · $133,520
- 11. Physical Therapists 160 jobs · $98,730
- 12. Industrial Engineers 150 jobs · $97,460
- 13. Occupational Therapists 140 jobs · $97,740
- 14. Civil Engineers 110 jobs · $100,330
- 15. Dentists, General 100 jobs · $165,060
- 16. Architectural and Engineering Managers 100 jobs · $131,100
- 17. Human Resources Managers 100 jobs · $103,580
- 18. Diagnostic Medical Sonographers 80 jobs · $100,140
Occupations Tracked
302
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$49,848
employment-weighted, 301 complete rows
Top Salary
$258,130
Physicians, All Other
Cost of Living
85.9
14% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Fort Smith, AR-OK, by employment
Same top-pay sample as the salary ranking, sorted by published local jobs so the title sequence follows the OEWS mix.
| # | Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Financial Managers | $104,990 |
| 2 | Managers, All Other | $98,500 |
| 3 | Nurse Practitioners | $129,270 |
| 4 | Sales Managers | $99,110 |
| 5 | Industrial Production Managers | $106,520 |
| 6 | Chief Executives | $114,550 |
| 7 | Software Developers | $114,140 |
| 8 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $114,760 |
| 9 | Physicians, All Other | $258,130 |
| 10 | Pharmacists | $133,520 |
| 11 | Physical Therapists | $98,730 |
| 12 | Industrial Engineers | $97,460 |
| 13 | Occupational Therapists | $97,740 |
| 14 | Civil Engineers | $100,330 |
| 15 | Dentists, General | $165,060 |
| 16 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $131,100 |
| 17 | Human Resources Managers | $103,580 |
| 18 | Diagnostic Medical Sonographers | $100,140 |
| 19 | Physician Assistants | $119,840 |
| 20 | Purchasing Managers | $125,330 |
| 21 | Facilities Managers | $103,300 |
| 22 | Computer Network Architects | $114,270 |
| 23 | Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers | $170,960 |
| 24 | Optometrists | $109,200 |
| 25 | Veterinarians | $104,110 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in Fort Smith, AR-OK
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Waiters and Waitresses | $23,680 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $23,760 |
| Bartenders | $23,830 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $24,140 |
| Recreation Workers | $25,690 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | $26,480 |
| Dishwashers | $26,630 |
| Library Technicians | $26,790 |
| Food Preparation Workers | $26,900 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $26,930 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in AR
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 AR. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($49,848 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
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
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Related federal data
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.