BLS OEWS May 2025 · released May 2026
Highest-Paying Jobs
Pick a metro area or state to rank its top-paying occupations, or pick an occupation to rank the metro areas that pay it best — both by the published median annual wage from a single BLS OEWS release.
Methodology
Source. Every wage figure comes from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 reference period, released May 2026. The ranking is a straight sort of that release's published median annual wages — nothing is estimated, interpolated, or blended from another source.
What's ranked. "Top-paying jobs in a city" ranks detailed BLS occupations (specific job titles, not the broader major/minor/broad occupation groups BLS also publishes) within the area you pick. "Top-paying cities for a job" ranks metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) only — states, territories, and the national figure are excluded from that mode, since the point is comparing cities to each other. Occupations BLS publishes only as an hourly wage (no annual figure) are excluded from both rankings, since there's no annual number to sort on.
Suppressed and missing figures. BLS withholds a wage estimate, area by area and occupation by occupation, when the sample doesn't meet its publication standards. A suppressed combination simply doesn't appear in the ranking — it is never estimated or backfilled from a broader geography the way the percentile lookup's fallback does, because a ranked list mixing directly-published figures with fallback figures would misstate the actual order.
Scope and limitations. OEWS wages cover base pay, commissions, tips, and production bonuses, but exclude overtime premiums, stock, and equity compensation. Rankings reflect one survey snapshot (May 2025); they carry no cost-of-living adjustment and say nothing about which jobs or cities are growing fastest.
Informational only, not professional or relocation advice. Last reviewed: July 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How is this ranking different from a 'best jobs' list based on surveys?
Every figure ranked here is a published median annual wage from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 reference period, released May 2026. There's no self-reported submission anywhere in the ranking — it's a straight sort of BLS's own published numbers.
Why are some occupations or cities missing from the ranking?
Three things keep a row out: BLS suppressed the wage figure for that occupation-and-area combination (too small a sample to publish reliably), the occupation is published only as an hourly wage with no annual figure to rank on, or — in the cities mode — the area isn't a metropolitan statistical area (state and national rows are excluded there, since the point is comparing cities). Nothing is estimated to fill a gap.
Why does the city-ranking mode only show metro areas, not states or the nation?
Mixing a metro area's wage against a whole state's or the nation's would compare different-sized labor markets on the same list. Restricting to BLS's metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) keeps every row a genuine city-to-city comparison.
Does this ranking account for cost of living?
No. These are nominal published wages with no cost-of-living adjustment — a higher-ranked city may still buy less after housing and other costs. Pair a result here with the metro comparison tool or your own cost-of-living research before treating a ranking as a relocation signal.
Related tools
Look up the real pay range for your job in your city — from the 10th to the 90th percentile — and see exactly where your own salary lands on it.
Open tool →Occupation ComparisonWeighing a career change? Put two or three jobs side by side and compare their full pay ranges in the same city, from the same BLS data.
Open tool →Metro ComparisonSame job, different city: see how pay for your occupation changes across metro areas before you relocate or take a remote offer.
Open tool →