May 2025 OEWS
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.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage percentiles in the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. Line the wages for an occupation up from lowest to highest. The 10th percentile is the wage at which 10 percent of workers earn less and 90 percent earn more. The median, the 50th percentile, is the wage in the middle. The 90th percentile is the wage at which 90 percent earn less and 10 percent earn more.
On a Salary by Metro page the headline number is that median. The band under it runs from the 10th percentile to the 90th. The 25th and 75th sit inside the band and mark the middle half of the distribution. Half of the measured wages fall between those two figures. That middle half is a better picture of a typical spread than the distance from the very bottom to the very top.
| Employment | 155,495,730 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $31,200 |
| 25th percentile | $37,590 |
| Median | $50,980 |
| 75th percentile | $80,520 |
| 90th percentile | $128,560 |
| Mean | $69,770 |
The national row, read one number at a time
In the May 2025 national estimates, across all occupations, the 10th percentile annual wage is $31,200 and the 90th percentile is $128,560. The median is $50,980. The mean, which is the ordinary average, is $69,770. Employment is 155,495,730. The hourly median is $24.51. Those figures describe the whole country and every occupation together. They are the backdrop for a job page, not a substitute for one.
A single occupation is tighter or wider depending on the work. Registered nurses, nationally, have a 10th percentile of $68,940, a median of $97,550, and a 90th percentile of $137,470. The hourly median is $46.90. Software developers run from $82,460 at the 10th percentile to $214,670 at the 90th, with a median of $135,980. The same columns appear on a metro page. The only change is the geography.
What a percentile is not
- It is not the wage you will be paid. It describes workers already in the occupation, in the survey's reference period.
- The 10th percentile is not a legal minimum wage. Minimum wages are set by statute. The 10th percentile is just a low point in the measured distribution.
- The 90th percentile is not a cap. People earn more than that. BLS stops the published range at the 90th so a handful of very high wages does not define the top of the table.
- A blank cell is not a zero. When BLS does not publish a percentile, the page says the figure is not available.
OEWS is a survey of establishments, and every wage in it is an estimate. The full BLS tables include a relative standard error for employment and for the mean wage. A small occupation in a small metro can be a noisy estimate even when a number is published. The technical notes explain the survey design, the May reference period, and the publication standards.
To see the columns in a real metro, start with registered nurses in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX, or with the national page for software developers. For the difference between the middle and the average, read the note on median and mean pay.
Registered nurses in Houston · Software developers, national wages