Topics
Salary-research topics covered on WageDex, each backed by Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Topics cluster the editorial guides, ranking lenses, and outlook pages around a single career-decision question.
Highest-Paying Careers
Which occupations pay the most in the U.S., how states and metros rank, and what drives top-of-market compensation.
Salary Negotiation with Data
Using BLS percentile bands and metro differentials to anchor pay conversations with concrete evidence.
Salary vs. Cost of Living
Adjusting nominal wages for regional price parities to compare real purchasing power across cities.
Fastest-Growing Occupations
Which careers BLS projects will grow most through 2033, and which job-growth stories have the most staying power.
Best States for Salaries
Which U.S. states pay the highest wages overall, and how that interacts with state-level cost of living.
Entry-Level vs. Experienced Pay
What 10th vs. 90th percentile spreads reveal about career earnings trajectories and upside potential.
Understanding BLS Wage Data
How OEWS collects wages, what is included and excluded, and why BLS differs from self-reported salary sites.
Job Outlook & Projections
Browse BLS 10-year employment projections per occupation with growth rate, annual openings, and education.
Workplace Safety
Fatality and injury rates per occupation from BLS CFOI and SOII, with safety grades and danger indices.
Career Rankings
Highest-paying, fastest-growing, largest employment, most annual openings, and highest hourly pay.
Methodology
Every topic on this page anchors to official U.S. government wage and employment data. Salary numbers come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 annual release, which samples approximately 1.1 million establishments across all industries and publishes wage percentiles for 800+ SOC occupations at national, state, and MSA levels.
Growth and outlook topics use BLS Employment Projections program, 2024–2034 cycle, which publishes 10-year percentage growth, projected annual openings, and typical education, experience, and training requirements per occupation. Safety topics use the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), 2023 reference period. Cost-of-living adjustments use BEA Regional Price Parities, 2023.
Topics are editorial groupings of underlying government data, not separate data collections. Every topic page links back to the raw occupation, state, or metro pages where readers can verify numbers against BLS source tables. See the methodology page for sampling, suppression, and reporting details.