BLS OEWS May 2025 · released May 2026
Metro Comparison
Pick one occupation and two or three metro areas (or states). You get the published BLS wage distributions on one axis — the actual 10th–90th percentile ranges, medians marked, from a single OEWS release.
Methodology
Source. All wage figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 reference period, released May 2026. Every area in a comparison is drawn from that same single release, so figures are directly comparable — never mixed vintages. The occupation description and Job Zone preparation level come from the Department of Labor's O*NET database, which contributes context only, never a number.
What the chart shows. For each area, the bar spans the published 10th to 90th percentile annual wages, the heavier band spans the 25th to 75th, and the tick marks the median — the five points BLS actually publishes, on one shared dollar axis. The tool draws nothing between or beyond them: no fitted curves, no interpolated overlap statistics, and the 10% of workers past each end of a bar are noted in the caption rather than drawn.
Suppressed combinations. BLS withholds estimates that fail its publication standards, per area and occupation. When your requested area is withheld for this occupation, that area falls back to the state figure, then the national one — labeled on that area specifically. When a comparison ends up mixing geographic levels, the page says so rather than presenting the bars as like-for-like.
Scope and limitations. OEWS wages cover base pay, commissions, tips, and production bonuses, but exclude overtime premiums, stock, and equity compensation, and say nothing about cost of living — a higher headline wage in one metro may buy less after housing costs. Comparisons are within one survey snapshot (May 2025); they say nothing about which area's wages are growing faster.
Informational only, not professional or relocation advice. Last reviewed: July 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these comparison figures come from?
Every wage figure comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 reference period, released May 2026 — the same single release for every area being compared, so the numbers are directly comparable. The occupation description and Job Zone come from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database, which never supplies a wage number.
Why do the areas I compared show figures at different geographic levels?
BLS withholds estimates that fail its publication standards, area by area, for a given occupation. If your metro's figure exists for one area but not another, this tool shows each area at the most specific level BLS did publish — labeled per area — rather than inventing a metro number. When that happens the comparison mixes geographic levels, and the tool says so explicitly.
Can I compare more than three metro areas?
Not in one view. Three range strips on one axis stay readable; more become a visual soup where honest comparison suffers. For a broader survey, run several two- or three-way comparisons — every comparison is a shareable URL, so they're easy to keep side by side in tabs.
What do the bars actually show?
Each bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile annual wages BLS published for that area; the heavier inner band spans the 25th to 75th, and the tick marks the median. Only those five published points are drawn — the tool never fits a curve or estimates values between them, and the 10% of workers beyond each end of the bar are noted rather than drawn, because BLS publishes no boundary for them.
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 →Highest-Paying JobsRank occupations by pay within a city, or rank cities by pay for one occupation — straight from BLS OEWS, never a self-reported "best jobs" list.
Open tool →