How to read a wage percentile
A percentile is a place in the line of wages, not a promise about the job you were offered.
Sources on the page
Guides
How the wage tables are put together, and how to quote them without inventing a number the survey did not publish.
Negotiating with wage data
Bring the local median and the middle half of the range. Then ask which part of that range the offer matches.
Median pay and mean pay
The median is the middle wage. The mean is the average, and high wages can pull it up.
Hourly wages and annual wages
If BLS published an annual wage, use it. If it published only an hourly wage, leave it hourly.
Comparing pay across metros
A higher wage in a more expensive metro can buy less. Price parities put the two wages in the same prices.
How take-home pay is estimated
The figure is an estimate of wage income after federal tax, payroll tax, and state income tax. It is not a paycheck and it is not a return.
What a metro area includes
The wage covers the whole metropolitan statistical area, not the city limits of the first city in the name.
When a wage is not published
Not available means BLS did not publish the estimate. It does not mean the wage is zero.
Cost-of-living adjustments and merit raises
A COLA is a price adjustment applied across the board. A merit raise is a judgment about one worker. One percentage on a letter can be either, or both.
Cost of labor and cost of living
What employers pay is a labor-market fact. What those dollars buy is a price fact. A relocation policy has to say which one it is using.
Registered nurse pay by metro
The national median is the middle of a large licensed occupation. A metro page is that same row for one area, and it still leaves the weekend differential out.