Highest Paying Jobs in Missouri

Top 100 occupations ranked by median annual salary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025

Highest Salary

$842,800

Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric

Top 25 Average

$248,846

median salary

$100K+ Jobs

occupations

Occupations

100

with wage data

This ranking surfaces the 100 highest-paying occupations in Missouri by BLS OEWS state median salary, drawn from the May 2025 release. At the top, Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric pays a state median of $842,800, +135% above the national median of $358,550 for the same role. Of the 100 tracked positions, 84 pay above $100,000 per year in Missouri - a useful threshold for separating specialist professional roles from mid-tier employment. The top-10 average sits at $378,344, giving a sense of what elite specialists inside this state actually clear.

The "Difference" column compares each state median to the corresponding national median for the same SOC code, making pay premiums and discounts immediately visible. In this list, 23 of 100 occupations pay above the national median in Missouri, which usually signals one of three things: a local concentration of specialized employers (finance hubs, tech clusters, research universities, federal agencies), a cost-of-living adjustment baked into state-wide wage scales, or scarce in-state talent supply bidding up competitive roles. Occupations paying below the national median are not necessarily bad news, they often reflect lower cost of living in the state or industries where Missouri is not a concentrated employer.

Rankings like this show ceiling-potential by specialty, but they don't tell you the odds of landing one of those roles. Pair this table with the employment column (how many workers the state actually employs in each occupation) and the growth projections on each occupation's national page to see whether the field is expanding or contracting. BLS wages exclude benefits, bonuses, and overtime, especially distorting for top-paying roles where equity and performance compensation can represent 30-50% of total pay. Use this leaderboard to shortlist careers worth exploring in Missouri, then drill into each row's linked profile to check percentile spread, typical education, metro-level variation, and whether projected openings match your timeline.

#	Occupation	State Median	National	Difference	Employment
1	Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$842,800	$358,550	+135% above	N/A
2	Cardiologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$648,070	$496,010	+31% above	150
3	Emergency Medicine Physicians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$456,280	$335,550	+36% above	N/A
4	Orthodontists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$332,630	$289,140	+15% above	N/A
5	Psychiatrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$312,680	$281,870	+11% above	240
6	Physicians, Pathologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$261,830	$312,400	16% below	N/A
7	Nurse Anesthetists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$242,630	$236,590	+3% above	1,550
8	Dentists, All Other Specialists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$230,130	$224,990	+2% above	30
9	Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$228,410	$300,080	24% below	N/A
10	Physicians, All Other Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$227,980	$265,930	14% below	3,990
11	Pediatricians, General Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$223,910	$210,040	+7% above	500
12	General Internal Medicine Physicians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$216,570	$256,560	16% below	160
13	Dentists, General Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$204,960	$170,950	+20% above	2,440
14	Athletes and Sports Competitors Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations	$172,700	$66,710	+159% above	670
15	Chief Executives Management Occupations	$172,320	$213,990	19% below	2,550
16	Family Medicine Physicians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$171,180	$244,180	30% below	3,740
17	Computer and Information Systems Managers Management Occupations	$159,460	$175,140	9% below	11,130
18	Architectural and Engineering Managers Management Occupations	$157,800	$171,270	8% below	2,250
19	Financial Managers Management Occupations	$143,460	$166,570	14% below	13,330
20	Physicists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$140,460	$172,250	18% below	90
21	Pharmacists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$137,610	$140,910	2% below	6,740
22	Physician Assistants Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$135,130	$135,880	1% below	2,300
23	Psychologists, All Other Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$134,890	$110,840	+22% above	250
24	Optometrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$133,810	$136,570	2% below	630
25	Lawyers Legal Occupations	$133,450	$159,670	16% below	11,560
26	Purchasing Managers Management Occupations	$132,100	$148,080	11% below	960
27	Human Resources Managers Management Occupations	$130,680	$149,280	12% below	3,510
28	Aerospace Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$130,680	$134,960	3% below	650
29	Marketing Managers Management Occupations	$130,550	$166,790	22% below	6,550
30	Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations	$130,500	$99,650	+31% above	160
31	Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations	$130,490	$107,310	+22% above	5,700
32	Nurse Midwives Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$130,220	$134,040	3% below	80
33	Podiatrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$129,950	$160,300	19% below	160
34	Nurse Practitioners Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$129,930	$132,300	2% below	7,710
35	Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers Legal Occupations	$129,670	$117,860	+10% above	160
36	Medical Dosimetrists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$129,610	$147,470	12% below	80
37	Natural Sciences Managers Management Occupations	$129,410	$167,220	23% below	1,230
38	Actuaries Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$129,220	$130,000	1% below	390
39	Computer and Information Research Scientists Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$127,820	$140,300	9% below	230
40	Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers Construction and Extraction Occupations	$126,750	$109,910	+15% above	450
41	Software Developers Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$126,120	$135,980	7% below	20,020
42	Managers, All Other Management Occupations	$125,760	$141,900	11% below	11,420
43	Air Traffic Controllers Transportation and Material Moving Occupations	$122,200	$148,080	17% below	260
44	Electrical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$118,670	$120,630	2% below	2,410
45	Industrial Production Managers Management Occupations	$117,660	$126,060	7% below	4,110
46	Electronics Engineers, Except Computer Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$117,630	$130,220	10% below	740
47	Economists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$117,010	$124,720	6% below	280
48	Economics Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations	$116,530	$123,920	6% below	150
49	Hydrologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$116,100	$96,600	+20% above	50
50	Sales Managers Management Occupations	$115,370	$148,270	22% below	7,630
51	Public Relations Managers Management Occupations	$114,710	$146,910	22% below	760
52	Veterinarians Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$114,660	$130,100	12% below	1,920
53	Atmospheric and Space Scientists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$114,230	$99,070	+15% above	160
54	Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$112,260	$115,210	3% below	420
55	Construction Managers Management Occupations	$112,230	$114,990	2% below	3,680
56	Fundraising Managers Management Occupations	$111,120	$125,470	11% below	N/A
57	Database Architects Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$110,570	$139,500	21% below	1,410
58	Training and Development Managers Management Occupations	$109,250	$133,000	18% below	400
59	Compensation and Benefits Managers Management Occupations	$106,490	$149,230	29% below	250
60	Food Scientists and Technologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$105,930	$88,720	+19% above	390
61	Power Distributors and Dispatchers Production Occupations	$105,450	$106,730	1% below	100
62	Nuclear Technicians Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$104,580	$110,240	5% below	150
63	Education Administrators, Postsecondary Management Occupations	$104,560	$104,590	same as	2,830
64	Medical and Health Services Managers Management Occupations	$104,370	$123,860	16% below	10,800
65	Computer Hardware Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$103,980	$161,740	36% below	900
66	Web Developers Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$103,750	$92,650	+12% above	1,160
67	Information Security Analysts Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$103,440	$129,180	20% below	3,260
68	Computer Network Architects Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$103,130	$134,050	23% below	3,360
69	Commercial Pilots Transportation and Material Moving Occupations	$102,990	$123,220	16% below	670
70	Engineers, All Other Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$102,980	$122,930	16% below	1,850
71	Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers Management Occupations	$102,870	$107,230	4% below	3,650
72	Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$102,540	$103,410	1% below	3,650
73	Chemical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$102,320	$125,040	18% below	320
74	Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations	$102,200	$103,170	1% below	130
75	Geographers Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$102,040	$102,040	same as	40
76	Power Plant Operators Production Occupations	$101,900	$102,040	same as	N/A
77	Computer Occupations, All Other Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$101,040	$116,580	13% below	14,340
78	Art Directors Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations	$100,940	$114,850	12% below	780
79	Financial Risk Specialists Business and Financial Operations Occupations	$100,620	$117,330	14% below	1,070
80	Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary Management Occupations	$100,400	$105,870	5% below	7,120
81	Facilities Managers Management Occupations	$100,380	$106,660	6% below	1,920
82	Business Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations	$100,310	$99,080	+1% above	1,720
83	Database Administrators Computer and Mathematical Occupations	$100,270	$104,620	4% below	1,140
84	Diagnostic Medical Sonographers Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$100,130	$96,590	+4% above	1,930
85	Physics Teachers, Postsecondary Educational Instruction and Library Occupations	$99,970	$100,310	same as	230
86	Personal Financial Advisors Business and Financial Operations Occupations	$99,930	$105,070	5% below	4,480
87	Radiation Therapists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$99,890	$105,310	5% below	420
88	Audiologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$99,450	$95,780	+4% above	220
89	Clinical and Counseling Psychologists Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations	$99,410	$100,580	1% below	840
90	Mechanical Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$99,330	$104,110	5% below	4,870
91	Physical Therapists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$99,310	$102,760	3% below	4,900
92	Industrial Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$99,290	$102,440	3% below	5,070
93	Materials Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$98,860	$112,860	12% below	300
94	Social Workers, All Other Community and Social Service Occupations	$98,740	$71,900	+37% above	590
95	Architects, Except Landscape and Naval Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$98,490	$99,280	1% below	2,150
96	Financial and Investment Analysts Business and Financial Operations Occupations	$98,420	$102,740	4% below	4,430
97	Environmental Engineers Architecture and Engineering Occupations	$98,170	$107,110	8% below	510
98	Nuclear Medicine Technologists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$98,010	$101,370	3% below	360
99	Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers Transportation and Material Moving Occupations	$97,680	$232,140	58% below	120
100	Occupational Therapists Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations	$97,290	$100,330	3% below	3,400

More ways to explore Missouri pay and compare with national data.

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Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric

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About This Data

All salary data comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025. State-level data reflects wages for workers employed in Missouri. The "Difference" column shows how Missouri pay compares to the national median for that occupation.

Every figure on WageDex is rendered directly from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, no number is typed in by an editor. These figures are computed directly from BLS OEWS state-level wage data. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 2025.

Compiled by WageDex Editorial, Occupational Wages Editorial Team · May 15, 2026

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