BLS OEWS May 2025 · released May 2026
Occupation Comparison
Pick two or three occupations and a metro (or state). You get their 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 occupation in a comparison is drawn from that same single release, so figures are directly comparable — never mixed vintages. Occupation descriptions and Job Zone preparation levels come from the Department of Labor's O*NET database, which contributes context only, never a number.
What the chart shows. For each occupation, 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 occupation and area. When your requested area is withheld for one occupation, that occupation falls back to the state figure, then the national one — labeled on that occupation 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 — for equity-heavy occupations the true total-compensation gap may differ from the wage gap shown. Comparisons are within one survey snapshot (May 2025); they say nothing about which occupation's wages are growing faster. Occupations whose wages BLS publishes only hourly appear in the table but can't be drawn on the annual axis.
Informational only, not professional or career 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 occupation being compared, so the numbers are directly comparable. Occupation descriptions and Job Zones come from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database, which never supplies a wage number.
Why do the occupations I compared show figures for different geographies?
BLS withholds estimates that fail its publication standards, occupation by occupation. If your metro's figure exists for one occupation but not another, this tool shows each occupation at the most specific level BLS did publish — labeled per occupation — 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 occupations?
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 occupation; 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 →Same job, different city: see how pay for your occupation changes across metro areas before you relocate or take a remote offer.