{"chart":{"slug":"pay-by-occupation","title":"Which kinds of jobs pay the most in the US?","takeaway":"In May 2025 the typical (median) management job paid $126,520 a year, 3.6 times the $35,050 of the typical food preparation and serving job. Across all occupations the median was $50,980. Each bar is one of the 22 major groups BLS uses to classify jobs; half the workers in a group earn more than its median and half earn less.","topic":"Jobs and wages","chart_type":"bar","ranking":true,"x_label":"Occupation group","y_label":"Median annual wage, dollars","unit":"dollars","points_count":23,"source":{"name":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics","url":"https://www.bls.gov/oes/"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.bls.gov/opub/copyright-information.htm"},"data_as_of":"2025-05-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.549Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/pay-by-occupation","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation/embed","credit":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation)","credit_html":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":"All occupations","zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"Management","value":126520},{"label":"Computers and math","value":109280},{"label":"Legal","value":102500},{"label":"Architecture and engineering","value":99520},{"label":"Doctors, nurses and other health practitioners","value":86530},{"label":"Business and finance","value":82660},{"label":"Science","value":82530},{"label":"Arts, design, media and sports","value":62750},{"label":"Teaching and libraries","value":60570},{"label":"Installation, maintenance and repair","value":59620},{"label":"Construction and extraction","value":59540},{"label":"Community and social service","value":58300},{"label":"All occupations","value":50980},{"label":"Protective service","value":50080},{"label":"Office and administrative support","value":47450},{"label":"Production","value":46990},{"label":"Transportation and moving goods","value":44350},{"label":"Sales","value":38530},{"label":"Healthcare support","value":38340},{"label":"Building cleaning and grounds","value":37680},{"label":"Farming, fishing and forestry","value":36630},{"label":"Personal care and service","value":36410},{"label":"Food preparation and serving","value":35050}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation)"}