HighestPaidProfession

Methodology and editorial policy

Sources

The original files are downloaded, kept unchanged, and processed by a script; nothing is typed in by hand. All 830 detailed occupations in the national file are included.

How occupations are ranked

By median annual wage for the United States, all industries. Ties share a rank. 5 occupations (Actors, Dancers, Disc Jockeys, Except Radio, Entertainers and Performers, Sports and Related Workers, All Other, Musicians and Singers) have hourly wages only, so they are shown but not ranked, leaving 825 ranked occupations. The median is used rather than the mean because a small number of very high earners can raise the mean well above what a typical worker earns.

What the wage figures cover

  • Straight-time gross pay reported by employers, including base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay (including commissions and production bonuses) and tips.
  • Excluding overtime, severance, shift differentials, non-production bonuses, employer-paid benefits and tuition reimbursement.
  • Employees only: the survey does not include the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers or unpaid family workers.
  • Annual wages for most occupations are hourly wages × 2,080 hours. For occupations typically paid a yearly salary without working 2,080 hours (such as teachers and pilots), BLS publishes annual wages only.
  • In state files, BLS reports some wage estimates only as “equal to or greater than $115.00 per hour or $239,200 per year.” Other state values above that level are published exactly. Those cells appear here as “≥ $239,200” and are not ranked or price-adjusted. The national file has no such cells.

Definitions used in the rankings

  • Highest-paying jobs without a degree: Occupations whose typical entry education is no formal credential, a high school diploma, some college with no degree, or a postsecondary certificate (a “nondegree award”), per BLS Employment Projections 2025–35. Many still require long on-the-job training, an apprenticeship, or a license.
  • Highest-paying trade jobs: Occupations in three federal occupation groups — construction and extraction (SOC 47), installation, maintenance and repair (SOC 49) and production (SOC 51) — whose typical entry education is an associate’s degree or less. “Trades” has no official definition; this is ours, stated so you can check it.
  • Highest-paying healthcare jobs: Occupations in the healthcare practitioners and technical group (SOC 29) and the healthcare support group (SOC 31).
  • Highest-paying jobs outside healthcare: All occupations outside the healthcare practitioners and technical (SOC 29) and healthcare support (SOC 31) groups.
  • Entry-education rankings use the BLS “typical education needed for entry” for each occupation.

Cost-of-living adjustment

Price-adjusted figures divide a state wage by that state’s regional price parity ÷ 100 (U.S. = 100). The result approximates what the wage would buy at national-average prices. Price parities are for 2024, the latest available; wages are for May 2025. The adjustment does not account for taxes. Territories have no published price parity and are not included in state tables.

What we don’t show, and why

  • Year-over-year changes. Each OEWS release combines six panels collected over three years, so consecutive releases overlap.
  • Salaries from job postings or self-reports. We use one consistent source rather than mixing methods.
  • Pay outside the U.S. No comparable official dataset covers occupations across countries.

Updates

The dataset is rebuilt when a source publishes a new release: OEWS each spring, Employment Projections each autumn, and BEA price parities each December. The “data updated” date on each page shows the last rebuild. Guides list substantive changes in their update history; fixing a typo does not change the date.

Corrections

If you find an error, email info@highestpaidprofession.com. We check the figure against the original file. Confirmed errors are fixed and, for guides, noted in the page’s update history.

Editorial review

Data pages are produced by software from the source files, using templates reviewed by a human editor. Guides and other explanatory text are drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed and edited by a human editor, who checks claims against the original sources before publication. When a guide changes substantively, the editor reviews the change and it is recorded in the guide’s update history.

Limits

The site describes what the data show and does not give individual career, financial or legal advice.

Money

The site currently has no advertising and no affiliate links. Rankings are determined only by the data and are not for sale.