Average Salary by Job Title

What the Table Does Not Show

40 of the 50 titles above pay more than the $49,500 all-occupation median. That is not because most Americans are well paid. It is because a list of job titles people search for skews heavily toward licensed, credentialed, and salaried work — these 50 occupations employ 47.8 million people, about 31% of the workforce. Half of all U.S. workers earn less than $49,500, and most of them hold titles that nobody looks up.

The second thing a median hides is range. A software engineer at the 10th percentile earns $79,850; at the 90th, $211,450 — a 2.6× gap inside a single job title, wider than the gap between the median engineer and the median accountant. Your title sets the range. Your experience, employer, and city decide where in it you land.

Median, Not Average — and Why It Matters Here

Every figure on this page is a median: the middle worker in the occupation, with half earning more and half less. Across all U.S. jobs that median is $49,500, while the mean is $67,920 — 37% higher, because a handful of very large paychecks pull an average up and cannot pull a median.

This is also why the numbers here sit below the ones on our average salary by industry page. That page reports mean pay per job from a different BLS program, counting bonuses and exercised stock options and treating two part-time jobs as two entries. This page reports the median wage per worker, and excludes overtime and year-end bonuses. Both are correct. Only one of them describes you.

The Same Title Is Worth Different Money in Different Cities

A national median is a starting point, not an offer. Local prices move what it buys more than most raises do. A registered nurse earning the national median of $93,600 is living on the equivalent of $52,116 once San Francisco prices are accounted for. Run the same arithmetic the other way and a software engineer on $133,080 in Memphis is effectively on $157,305.

The metro selector above the table applies this adjustment to all 50 titles at once. To compare two specific cities against your own salary rather than a national median, use the cost of living adjustment tool.

Is Your Job Title's Median a Good Salary?

“Good” depends on where you live and who you support, not on the title. We break down what each of these figures actually covers — rent, savings rate, and what is left over — at the salary level nearest to the median for the job:

• Software Engineer, $133,080 — is $130k a good salary?
• Registered Nurse, $93,600 — is $95k a good salary?
• Accountant, $81,680 — is $80k a good salary?
• High School Teacher, $64,580 — is $60k a good salary?
• Truck Driver, $57,440 — is $55k a good salary?
• Retail Salesperson, $34,580 — is $35k a good salary?

For any other figure, the full index of salary breakdowns runs from $25,000 to $250,000, each with hourly, weekly, monthly, and after-tax equivalents.

Using a Median in a Negotiation

A national median is the weakest number you can bring to a salary conversation, because your employer can dismiss it in one sentence: it is not your market, not your level, and not your industry. It is useful as a floor and as a starting question, not as an ask. What works better is the percentile. If you are a registered nurse being offered $66,030, the fact that this is the 10th percentile nationally — the bottom tenth of the profession — is a specific, checkable claim.

Turn that into an ask with our guide to asking for a raise and the salary negotiation guide.

Frequently Asked Questions