San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Salaries
Local wages against a high BEA price level (RPP 110.4) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA moved from $82,470 in May 2024 to $84,050 in May 2025 (+1.9%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA sits -1.2 pp behind that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Registered Nurses shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Registered Nurses publishes $216,740 here versus $97,550 nationally (+122.2%; 22,930metro-area jobs). Next is Web and Digital Interface Designers at $201,260 locally versus $104,000 nationally (+93.5%).
- Registered Nurses$216,740 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA sits 122.2% above the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (22,930 published local jobs).
- Web and Digital Interface Designers$201,260 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA sits 93.5% above the national Web and Digital Interface Designers median of $104,000 (4,400 published local jobs).
- Lawyers$301,320 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA sits 88.7% above the national Lawyers median of $159,670 (6,040 published local jobs).
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists$141,960 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA sits 80.2% above the national Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists median of $78,760 (12,710 published local jobs).
Registered Nurses and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 41940 · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $119K mean
MEAN-MEGA · RPP-ELEV · OCC-MOST · TOP-LEAD · EMP-HEAVY · TREND-INLINE · NEAR-LOWER · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-MEGA #1/528
- RPP-ELEV 110.4
- OCC-MOST 574 occs
- TOP-LEAD Ophthalmologis… · $701K
- EMP-HEAVY Software Dev…
- TREND-INLINE -1.2 pp
- NEAR-LOWER San Francisco-Oa…
- BOOK-FULL 563 rows · May 2025
Read with San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA ($19,081 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 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Cl…
Largest San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA payrolls before the high-cost adjustment
Software Developers and Registered Nurses lead published employment inside San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Software Developers 87,350 jobs · $213,110
- 2. Registered Nurses 22,930 jobs · $216,740
- 3. Computer and Information Systems Managers 19,070 jobs · $291,660
- 4. Managers, All Other 13,740 jobs · $217,280
- 5. Financial Managers 7,970 jobs · $225,280
- 6. Computer Hardware Engineers 7,940 jobs · $209,860
- 7. Marketing Managers 7,300 jobs · $231,370
- 8. Lawyers 6,040 jobs · $301,320
- 9. Architectural and Engineering Managers 5,130 jobs · $234,590
- 10. Human Resources Managers 2,800 jobs · $220,460
- 11. Computer and Information Research Scientists 2,210 jobs · $218,420
- 12. Nurse Practitioners 1,580 jobs · $231,560
- 13. Natural Sciences Managers 1,160 jobs · $263,810
- 14. Family Medicine Physicians 1,120 jobs · $351,760
- 15. Physician Assistants 1,030 jobs · $223,640
- 16. Public Relations Managers 980 jobs · $213,510
- 17. Training and Development Managers 880 jobs · $230,020
- 18. Compensation and Benefits Managers 320 jobs · $215,180
Occupations Tracked
574
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$118,789
employment-weighted, 563 complete rows
Top Salary
$700,850
Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric
Cost of Living
110.4
10% above US avg
Highest Paying Jobs in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Lowest Paying Jobs in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | $37,640 |
| Engine and Other Machine Assemblers | $40,650 |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $41,710 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $41,920 |
| Bartenders | $42,270 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $42,400 |
| Packers and Packagers, Hand | $42,410 |
| Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers | $42,460 |
| Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers | $42,750 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $42,850 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in CA
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 CA. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($118,789 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Similar employment scale
Nearest headcount peers (floor 100,000 summed published jobs), distinct from the mean-wage column.
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.