J

obseekers might consider it in choosing a 

career. Workers refer to it when they negotiate their salaries. Employers consult it 

to decide whether relocating a business would 

reduce costs. 

The “it” is information on average wages 

for an occupation. Such information is a useful tool for gauging an occupation’s earnings 

potential. But data on average wages mask 

important differences within an occupation. 

For example, averages don’t tell you what 

you’ll probably earn as an entry-level worker. 

And they don’t tell you how high your salary 

could rise. 

Workers in a given occupation may earn 

more or less than the average because of a 

number of factors, including their skills and 

experience, the industry and location in which 

they work, their specific employer, and, in 

some cases, their ability to negotiate a higher 

wage. 

To learn that kind of information, you’ll 

need to look beyond averages. A good place 

to start is with the U.S. Bureau of Labor 

Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment 

Statistics (OES) program. OES data on wage 

distributions, or percentiles, provide more and 

better information on wage variability and 

earnings potential within an occupation. And 

data showing how wages vary by industry and 

location give additional details.

Understanding percentiles

The OES program provides estimates of the 

wages earned by the 10th-, 25th-, 50th-, 75th-, 

and 90th-percentile workers in each occupation. These data, called percentiles, provide 

details that averages omit about the range of 

wages workers can expect. 

Interpreting percentiles is straightforward: 

A percentile shows what proportion of workers in an occupation earned below and above 

a given amount. (See the box on page 16.) Ten 

percent of workers in an occupation earned 

wages at or below that occupation’s 10th 

percentile, for example, and 90 percent earned 

above that amount. In the same way, 25 percent of workers earned at or below the 25th 

percentile, and 75 percent earned above it. 

And half earned at or below the 50th percentile—also called the median—and half above. 

People just starting out in a new career 

Beyond 

averages:

by Ben Cover

Ben Cover is an economist in the Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections, BLS, 

(202) 691–6505.

12 Occupational Outlook Quarterly • Winter 2007–08

Other ways to look at occupational wages
Winter 2007–08 • Occupational Outlook Quarterly 13

might expect to be among the lowest wage 

earners for their occupation. Thus, the 10th 

percentile is sometimes used as an estimate—

a very rough one—of what starting salaries 

might be. In contrast, very experienced workers are usually the highest earners in their occupation and are most likely the ones earning 

wages at or above the 75th percentile. 

But wages depend on more than experience. Several factors, such as a job’s location 

and the industry in which it is found, also 

affect how much workers earn. 

Comparing occupations by their percentile wages can help jobseekers assess an 

occupation’s potential for high or low wages. 

Chart 1 shows five occupations that have different potentials for higher wages. All of the 

occupations in the chart had 10th-percentile 

wages between $9.69 and $9.73 per hour in 

May 2006, but wages varied considerably at 

the 90th percentile. For example, the 10th-percentile wages for real estate agents and word 

processors were nearly the same at $9.70 and 

$9.71 per hour, respectively—but the topearning 10 percent of real estate agents (those 

at the 90th percentile) made at least $53.61, 

and the top-earning 10 percent of word processors made at least $20.83. 

Many people use median wages to compare the earning potential of occupations. But 

occupations with similar median earnings can 

have widely differing financial prospects. 

Consider that the occupations in chart 2 

all had median wages between $30.10 and 

$33.35 per hour in May 2006. Some of them 

offer very different wages to workers at the 

bottom and top of the earnings spectrum. For 

example, the hourly wage range for nuclear 

power reactor operators was much smaller 

than that for fashion designers: 80 percent 

of nuclear power reactor operators earned 

between $26.05 and $44.35, but the same percentage of fashion designers earned between 

$14.42 and $56.31.

In general, occupations with higher wages 

overall have more wage variation than those 

paying less. Table 1 shows the occupations 

that had the highest percent earnings variation 





























0IPELAYERS 3TATISTICAL

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Chart 1

Selected occupations with similar wages at the 10th percentile 

but wide variation at the 90th percentile, May 2006
14 Occupational Outlook Quarterly • Winter 2007–08

Table 2

Employment and wages for the occupations with the smallest 

wage range percentages, May 2006*

Occupation Employment Median 

wage

75thpercentile 

wage

25thpercentile 

wage

Wage 

range

Wage 

range 

percentage

Postal Service clerks 81,670 $21.54 $23.03 $20.06 $2.97 15%

Postal Service mail sorters, 

processors, and processing 

machine operators 203,110 21.10 22.81 19.40 3.41 18

Postal Service mail carriers 346,990 21.32 23.27 19.37 3.90 20

Farmworkers and laborers, crop, 

nursery, and greenhouse 230,780 7.95 8.85 7.26 1.59 22

Roof bolters, mining 4,240 19.83 22.09 17.70 4.39 25

Nuclear power reactor operators 3,750 33.35 37.57 29.61 7.96 27

Dishwashers 502,770 7.57 8.62 6.78 1.84 27

Shuttle car operators 2,860 18.78 21.12 16.59 4.53 27

Signal and track switch repairers 5,980 24.11 26.97 21.18 5.79 27

Cooks, fast food 612,020 7.41 8.51 6.60 1.91 29

Table 1

Employment and wages for the occupations with the largest

wage range percentages, May 2006*

Occupation Employment Median 

wage

75thpercentile 

wage

25thpercentile 

wage

Wage 

range

Wage 

range 

percentage

Musicians and singers 46,600 $19.73 $36.55 $10.81 $25.74 238%

Agents and business managers 

of artists, performers, and 

athletes 11,130 31.01 55.00 18.10 36.90 204

Securities, commodities, and 

financial services sales agents 260,360 32.93 60.72 20.50 40.22 196

Makeup artists, theatrical and 

performance 1,250 15.30 25.06 8.69 16.37 188

Broadcast news analysts 6,770 22.46 40.08 14.46 25.62 177

Real estate brokers 46,950 29.23 49.13 18.17 30.96 170

Actors 51,880 11.61 22.51 8.47 14.04 166

Personal financial advisors 119,690 31.79 54.93 21.22 33.71 159

Music directors and composers 9,470 19.11 29.02 11.38 17.64 155

Judges, magistrate judges, and 

magistrates 25,870 48.89 64.91 25.92 38.99 150

* Not included: occupations for which hourly wage data are not available.
in May 2006, with musicians and singers topping the list. Of the occupations with the most 

variation, theatrical and performance makeup 

artists and actors are the only two that had 

median wages below the national average for 

all occupations. 

Table 2 shows that occupations with lower 

average wages tend to show less variation—to 

a point. Postal service clerks, the occupation with the smallest percentage variation in 

May 2006, had relatively high average wages. 

Among the factors contributing to its relatively small wage range is that this occupation has 

a single employer: the Federal Government.

Wages by industry

Besides a worker’s experience, one of the 

main reasons for wage variation is the industry in which a worker is employed. Employers in different industries often pay different 

wages. Consider sales managers, for example. 

In May 2006, median wages in the 10 industries with the highest levels of employment for 

sales managers varied from $24.55 in department stores to $59.94 in computer systems 

design and related services. (See table 3.) 

BLS percentile data can show how wages 

vary within an industry, too. Sales managers 

in computer systems design and related services, for example, had earnings ranging from 

$29.88 an hour at the 10th percentile to more 

than $70 an hour at the 90th percentile. 

 Workers in lower paying occupations 

often have less variability in their wages, even 

across industries. Dishwashers, for example, 

had one of the lowest average wages and one 

of the smallest wage ranges in May 2006. 

Workers in this occupation saw little difference in average wages from one industry 

to another. In fact, of the 10 industries that 

employed the most dishwashers, the median 

hourly wage varied from $7.21 in limitedservice eating places to $8.37 in the traveler 

accommodation industry.

Wages by location

A job’s location also affects wages. OES data 

illustrate how much an occupation’s wages 

can differ by State and metropolitan area. 

Table 4 shows wage variation, by location, for securities, commodities, and financial 

services sales agents in the 10 metropolitan 

areas that employed them most. In these areas 

in May 2006, median hourly wages in that occupation varied from $25.10 in the PhoenixMesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, area to more than 

Chart 2

Selected occupations with similar medians but widely varying

wage ranges, May 2006





























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Winter 2007–08 • Occupational Outlook Quarterly 15
The average annual salary for a reporter or correspondent was $41,900 in May 2006. A good 

amount, you think. But when it comes to occupational wage data, averages aren’t all you need to 

know. 

For example, the median salary for reporters in May 2006 was $33,470—more than $8,400 

less than the average. Percentile data provide a broader look at reporters’ wages than the average 

does. 

The OES program makes percentile figures available every year for about 800 occupations. 

Data are presented in a variety of formats, including this one:

$70 in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, 

Connecticut, area. That’s a difference of more 

than $44 an hour.

Some lower paying occupations had less 

variability. Fast-food cooks, for example, 

had one of the smallest wage ranges in May 

2006—both overall and across locations. In 

the 10 locations with the highest levels of 

employment for fast-food cooks, the median 

wage varied by only $1.08 per hour: from 

$6.89 in the Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada, area 

to $7.97 in the Sacramento-Arden-ArcadeRoseville, California, area. 

For more information

Visit the OES program’s Web site to get wage 

information for about 800 occupations. The 

site offers percentile data and data on wages 

according to industry, State, and more than 

480 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. 

See, for example, the occupational profiles at 

www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm.

For even more detail, use the “create 

your own tables” feature at data.bls.gov/oes/

search.jsp?data_tool=OES. This feature 

allows searchers to get detailed wage data for 

occupations in different industries and locations.

To learn more—or to get data by phone, 

fax, or mail—contact the OES office at 

Occupational Employment Statistics

2 Massachusetts Ave. NE.

Suite 2135

Washington, DC 20212

(202) 691-6569 

www.bls.gov/oes

For information about other sources of 

earnings data, see “Earnings data from BLS: 

What we have and how to find it” in the summer 2007 issue of the OOQ. 

And see the Occupational Outlook Handbook for more BLS analysis of occupational 

earnings. The Handbook is available at many 

libraries and career centers and online at 

www.bls.gov/oco.

Wage estimates for reporters and correspondents, May 2006

Percentile 10th 25th

50th 

(Median) 75th 90th

Annual salary $19,180 $24,370 $33,470 $51,700 $73,880

A look at percentiles

16 Occupational Outlook Quarterly • Winter 2007–08

Half earned between $24,370 and $51,700.
Winter 2007–08 • Occupational Outlook Quarterly 17

Table 4

Employment and wages for securities, commodities, and financial services sales 

agents in the metropolitan areas in which they have the highest concentration of 

employment, May 2006

Metropolitan area Employment Median 

wage

75thpercentile 

wage

25thpercentile 

wage

Wage 

range

New York-White Plains-Wayne, New YorkNew Jersey31,910 $46.43 ≥$70.00 $27.90 ≥$42.10

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Illinois 13,580 28.81 52.57 19.30 33.27

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, 

California

 9,580 35.16 62.67 22.38 40.29

San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, 

California

 6,760 55.99 ≥70.00 32.88 ≥37.12

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, 

Minnesota-Wisconsin

 6,680 31.87 57.90 19.95 37.95

Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts 6,400 52.30 ≥70.00 26.63 ≥43.37

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas 4,800 49.28 ≥70.00 21.83 ≥48.17

Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, California 4,750 31.40 56.90 22.90 34.00

Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona 4,640 25.10 44.89 15.42 29.47

Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut 4,610 ≥70.00 ≥70.00 45.14 ≥24.86

Table 3

Employment and wages for sales managers in the industries with the 

highest levels of employment of sales managers, May 2006

Industry Employment Median 

wage

75thpercentile 

wage

25thpercentile 

wage

Wage 

range

Automobile dealers 22,100 $48.61 $67.64 $34.94 $32.70 

Managers of companies and enterprises 21,490 47.23 64.61 33.39 31.22

Wholesale electronic markets and agents 

and brokers 8,870 51.64 ≥70.00 37.42 ≥32.58

Professional and commercial equipment 

and supplies merchant wholesalers 7,690 54.24 ≥70.00 39.79 ≥30.21

Machinery, equipment, and supplies 

merchant wholesalers 7,580 44.93 64.15 32.26 31.89

Computer systems design and related 

services 7,260 59.94 ≥70.00 42.58 ≥27.42

Insurance carriers 6,950 48.19 69.23 34.81 34.42

Department stores 6,000 24.55 30.13 20.79 9.34

Depository credit intermediation 5,910 45.34 68.18 29.40 38.78

Grocery and related product wholesalers 5,620 39.92 57.59 30.03 27.56