Which kinds of jobs pay the most in the US?

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.

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Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end. The dashed line is “All occupations”, for comparison. On a phone it opens on the top and bottom 10; tap “Show all” for the rest.

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Key facts

Measure: Median annual wage, dollars. Written from the data below.

  • Management has the highest figure, $126,520, followed by Computers and math ($109,280) and Legal ($102,500).
  • Food preparation and serving has the lowest figure, $35,050, followed by Personal care and service ($36,410) and Farming, fishing and forestry ($36,630).
  • The highest is 3.6 times the lowest.
  • All occupations: $50,980. Of the 22 compared, 12 are above it and 10 below.

The bigger picture, in plain words: Is pay keeping up with inflation?

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Source and date

Source
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which kinds of jobs pay the most in the US?” Chart. Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/oes/ (data as of May 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/pay-by-occupation (accessed November 5, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Occupation group Median annual wage, dollars
Management 126,520
Computers and math 109,280
Legal 102,500
Architecture and engineering 99,520
Doctors, nurses and other health practitioners 86,530
Business and finance 82,660
Science 82,530
Arts, design, media and sports 62,750
Teaching and libraries 60,570
Installation, maintenance and repair 59,620
Construction and extraction 59,540
Community and social service 58,300
All occupations 50,980
Protective service 50,080
Office and administrative support 47,450
Production 46,990
Transportation and moving goods 44,350
Sales 38,530
Healthcare support 38,340
Building cleaning and grounds 37,680
Farming, fishing and forestry 36,630
Personal care and service 36,410
Food preparation and serving 35,050

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