Top 10 US Occupations with Widest 10th-90th Percentile Wage Gap

WageDex ranks all 800+ US occupations by the difference between the 90th and 10th percentile annual wage. Updated automatically as new BLS wage data is published.

Research period:

Compiled by WageDex on 2026-07-29

Research question

Among 800+ US occupations in the BLS OEWS dataset, which have the widest within-occupation wage dispersion (90th percentile minus 10th percentile annual wage), and how does dispersion correlate with the headline median?

Methodology

This ranking is compiled directly from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics wage-percentile records, no figure is typed in by hand, and the numbers update whenever the underlying dataset is refreshed. Occupations with no recorded wage-percentile data are excluded from this ranking rather than shown with a zero, since a true zero and "no data reported" are different facts.

Where BLS suppresses a value (for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control), that record is left out of this ranking rather than displayed as zero. If BLS later revises a figure, the revision appears here automatically the next time WageDex refreshes its data, no manual edit to this page is needed.

This page is compiled through an editorial process before publication, and disputed figures can be corrected through the contact channels in the footer; corrections are reconciled against the official source record before anything changes here.

See the methodology page for the complete data-update process, source vintage, and field definitions.

Key findings

  • Athletes and Sports Competitors has the widest published 10th-to-90th percentile annual wage gap in this analysis at $715,810, from $26,500 at P10 to $742,310 at P90.
  • The largest published gap is 9.5× the $75,559 average gap across 825 occupations with both percentile estimates.
  • The top ten dispersion gaps range from $432,030 to $715,810.
  • Among occupations with at least 100,000 estimated jobs, Chief Executives has the widest published P90–P10 gap at $432,030, with 204,350 estimated jobs.
  • Athletes and Sports Competitors, the widest-gap occupation in this cut, has a published OEWS employment estimate of 15,070 jobs; the percentile gap does not measure how many workers occupy either endpoint.

Top 10 US Occupations with Widest 10th-90th Percentile Wage Gap

Compiled directly from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

P90–P10 gap
Source U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS As of May 2025

The ranked top 10

Every row below reflects the current 10-record ranking. Refresh the page after WageDex's next data update to see the latest values.

# Occupation 10th pct wage Median wage 90th pct wage P90 - P10 gap
1 Athletes and Sports Competitors 26500 66710 742310 715810
2 Cardiologists 107190 496010 712130 604940
3 Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric 84170 358550 659290 575120
4 Surgeons, All Other 80320 414010 655320 575000
5 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 86250 352220 622640 536390
6 Pediatric Surgeons 215410 559030 726660 511250
7 Radiologists 89010 420860 594410 505400
8 Dermatologists 102810 328730 578560 475750
9 Anesthesiologists 101460 391490 557130 455670
10 Chief Executives 75700 213990 507730 432030

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS OEWS National Wage Estimates. Values reflect WageDex's current data snapshot and update whenever the underlying dataset is refreshed.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked record in this dataset is Athletes and Sports Competitors, with a value of 715810 on the P90 - P10 gap column. The full top-10 set is shown in the table above; no number here is typed in by hand. When U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a revision, the ranking and this text update automatically the next time WageDex refreshes its data.

Distribution shape

The gap between the top-ranked record (715810) and the 10th-ranked record (432030) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, specifically the BLS OEWS National Wage Estimates. WageDex compiles this data directly from the agency's published release; there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and an updated dataset propagates to this page within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the data vintage, and how the figures are derived.

Why this ranking matters

Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.

What this analysis cannot tell us

The P90-P10 wage gap is a simple dispersion measure that does not adjust for selection into the occupation; a wide spread can reflect different seniority levels, specialties, employers, or locations within one occupation. Occupations without both a published 10th- and 90th-percentile estimate are excluded rather than assigned a ceiling. Self-employed practitioners, business owners, and gig-economy workers are excluded from OEWS, so occupations with high self-employment shares reflect only the employee population. Wage estimates include tips, commissions, incentive pay, and production bonuses, but exclude overtime premiums, employer benefits, stock compensation, and nonproduction bonuses. The dispersion measure does not adjust for hours worked.

Secondary cut from the same source

Widest P90-P10 gap among occupations with at least 100,000 workers

annual wage
Source U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS As of May 2025

Related data

Sources