🇺🇸 United States·Wage across 825 occupations·BLS OEWS May 2025
Which jobs pay more than yours?
Drop your salary onto the ladder of all 825 U.S. occupations. See where you rank, which jobs out-earn you, and by how much.
I earn $ a year as .
across all 825 U.S. occupations
90%
Your $120,000 out-earns the median pay of 745 of 825 occupations. 80 pay more, the biggest jumps are below. Your job, Software Developers, has a median of $135,980.
The pay ladder
The pay ladder
01Pediatric Surgeons$559,030
02Cardiologists$496,010
03Radiologists$420,860
04Surgeons, All Other$414,010
05Anesthesiologists$391,490
06Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric$358,550
69 more occupations
76Engineers, All Other$122,930
77Nuclear Power Reactor Operators$122,890
78Physical Scientists, All Other$122,570
79Electrical Engineers$120,630
80Data Scientists$120,230
▸You · your pay$120,000
81Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers$117,860
82Materials Scientists$117,790
83Financial Risk Specialists$117,330
84Computer Occupations, All Other$116,580
85Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other$115,210
86Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors$115,160
739 more occupations
Pays more than youPays lessYour pay · your job
Showing the highest-paying occupations and the rungs around your pay. Switch "Browse" to a field to see every role in it, ranked.
Highest-paying occupation
Pediatric Surgeons top the list at a $559,030 median, the most of any of the 825 jobs.
The full ladder
From $559,030 at the top to $30,890 at the bottom: a 18× gap between the best- and worst-paid occupations.
Highest-paying field
Management pays the most as a group, a $126,520 median across its roles.
Your job's rank
Software Developers sit #51 of 825 by median pay ($135,980).
Top in your field
The best-paid role in your field is Computer and Information Research Scientists at $140,300, $4k above your role's median.
Vs the typical worker
The all-occupation median is $50,980; 80 of 825 occupations have a median above your salary.
Keep it in perspective
A bigger number isn't the same as a better life.
A higher salary helps, but it's one input among many. Where you live decides what that pay actually buys: a top-quartile wage in an expensive metro can leave less behind than a modest one somewhere cheaper, once rent, state taxes, and the commute are counted. The figures on this ladder are gross and national; they don't know your cost of living.
And pay is only the financial slice. Health, time, the people around you, and work you don't dread rarely show up in a wage table, yet they shape how a life feels far more than the gap between two salary bands. Use this ladder to understand the market, not to measure your life against it.
Next steps
Where to go from here
Your pay, by the second
A playful breakdown of what your salary earns every hour, minute and second.
Run the breakdown→
Years to a bigger number
How a higher salary, saved consistently, changes your retirement date.
Open the calculator→
Invest a raise
Turn a pay jump into a number: monthly contributions at 5/7/10% over decades.
Open the calculator→
Track your progress
Save your numbers and watch your position move over time.
Open the dashboard→
Frequently Asked Questions
Not by switching alone, and not overnight. This page is a map, not a plan: most higher-paying occupations need different training, credentials, or years of experience, and the figures are medians, so half the people in a role earn less. Use it to see where the money is across the economy, then weigh what a realistic move would actually take.
Base wages. The BLS OEWS measures gross annual wages, which include overtime and commission but not the full value of stock, bonuses beyond wage, or benefits. For equity-heavy fields the real top end runs higher than shown, so read these as the wage floor of the pay, not total comp.
Because the comparison is the point. Seeing that a role pays double yours doesn't mean you'll take it; it tells you how your work is valued against the rest of the labor market, which is useful context whether you ever move or not.
Every occupation is ranked by its median annual wage, highest to lowest, from the BLS OEWS. Your salary is dropped onto that ladder at the rank where it equals an occupation's median, so you can see what sits above and below your current pay.
This page compares jobs to each other. To see where you stand within your specific role, and whether moving states would pay more, use the "Am I paid fairly, and would moving help?" page.