WageTruth

Guides

Short, sourced explainers on how to actually read BLS OEWS and O*NET wage data — what a percentile means, how to spot a suppressed figure, and where self-reported salary sites quietly diverge from the government's own numbers. Each guide links to the WageTruth tool that puts the concept to work on your own occupation and metro.

What Is a Wage Percentile? How to Read BLS Pay Data Correctly

The 10th/25th/50th/75th/90th percentiles BLS publishes explained — and why comparing your salary to a single "average" from a self-reported site is the wrong read.

Read guide →Comparing Pay Across Occupations When Job Titles Don't Match

Company job titles are inconsistent and inflated; BLS's standardized SOC occupation codes aren't. How to compare pay across a career change using the same occupation definition, not a title.

Read guide →Comparing Pay Across Cities: Nominal Wages, Metro Areas, and What BLS Doesn't Adjust For

How to compare BLS wage data across metro areas for a relocation or remote offer — what a metropolitan statistical area actually is, and why these are nominal wages with no cost-of-living adjustment.

Read guide →How BLS Actually Defines a "Highest-Paying Job" (and Why Most Best-Jobs Lists Don't)

Most "best jobs" lists blend survey pay, growth projections, and editorial opinion into one score. Here's what a ranking built only from BLS OEWS median wages does and doesn't tell you.

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