3

Text table 1. Percentile wages by major occupational group, May 2003

 Total ........................................... 127,567,910 $7.04 $9.08 $13.53 $21.17 $31.97 $17.41

Management. .................................................................... 6,653,480 16.15 23.14 34.07 49.39 (1) 39.80

Legal .................................................................................. 951,510 13.55 18.40 28.46 49.87 (1) 37.94

Computer and mathematical. ........................................... 2,827,010 15.61 21.17 28.87 38.17 47.12 30.40

Architecture and engineering ........................................... 2,376,650 14.84 19.89 26.89 35.57 44.25 28.48

Business and financial operations .................................. 4,924,210 13.66 17.72 23.68 32.10 42.79 26.71

Healthcare practitioner and technical ............................. 6,173,760 11.49 15.86 21.63 29.24 43.74 26.62

Life, physical, and social science ................................... 1,113,130 11.95 16.08 22.58 32.01 43.10 25.58

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media ............. 1,538,150 7.69 11.09 16.88 25.33 36.15 20.49

Education, training, and library ........................................ 7,831,630 8.01 11.94 18.00 25.01 32.98 19.55

Construction and extraction ............................................ 6,085,510 9.11 11.65 16.04 22.24 28.92 17.62

Installation, maintenance, and repair .............................. 5,226,080 9.11 12.00 16.49 21.87 27.22 17.41

Community and social services ...................................... 1,615,610 9.14 11.75 15.58 20.99 27.14 17.03

Protective service ............................................................ 2,999,630 7.47 9.70 14.25 21.56 28.66 16.39

Sales and related .............................................................. 13,534,180 6.38 7.55 10.20 17.35 28.99 15.02

Production ......................................................................... 10,488,450 7.53 9.32 12.32 16.87 22.69 13.80

Office and administrative support ................................... 22,678,010 7.70 9.66 12.52 16.56 20.92 13.59

Transportation and material moving ................................ 9,414,920 6.85 8.36 11.31 16.08 21.55 13.27

Healthcare support ........................................................... 3,208,770 7.21 8.46 10.27 12.84 15.99 10.94

Personal care and service ............................................... 2,988,590 6.03 6.94 8.48 11.26 16.83 10.28

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ........... 4,260,380 6.32 7.38 9.02 11.83 15.75 10.12

Farming, fishing, and forestry .......................................... 461,630 6.34 7.03 8.13 10.90 15.59 9.71

Food preparation and serving related ............................. 10,216,620 5.77 6.40 7.40 9.26 12.20 8.31

Employment and Wages by

Major Occupational Group

and Industry

Fatemeh Hajiha

Fatemeh Hajiha is an economist in the Division of Occupational

and Administrative Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employment

10th

percentile

25th

percentile

50th

percentile

75th

percentile

90th

percentile

Mean

wage

 1 Represents a wage above $70 per hour.

Hourly earnings

Major occupational group

Since 1996, the Occupational Employment Statistics

(OES) program has collected occupational employment

and wage information data from all industries each

year. The OES survey is designed to estimate employment

and wages at detailed industry and area levels based on a

sample of 1.2 million establishments. The data are collected

in six semiannual panels over a 3-year period. This survey

design permits estimation and analysis of wage distributions

by occupation across all industries, as well as within individual industries and by detailed geographic areas.

The following analysis examines employment and wages

by major occupational group across all industries, and wages

for detailed occupations in selected industries. Following

the articles in this bulletin, table 1 shows cross-industry national estimates of employment, hourly mean wage, annual

mean wage, and percentile wages.

Table 2 shows the 10 largest occupations in each fourdigit NAICS industry. Table 3 presents a sample of the data

available from the OES survey, including national industryspecific and State and MSA cross-industry employment and

wage data for the five largest occupations in each Standard

Occupational Classification (SOC) major group. (For a description of the SOC system used by Federal agencies, see

appendix A.)

Employment and wages by major occupational

group

The OES program collects and publishes data for 22 of the 23
4

Chart 1. Mean hourly wage and percent of total employment by major occupational group

0 5,000,000 10,000,000 15,000,000 20,000,000 25,000,000

Farming, fishing, and forestry ($9.71)

Life, physical, and social science ($25.58)

Community and social services ($17.03)

Computer and mathematical science ($30.40)

Protective service ($16.39)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($10.12)

Installation, maintenance, and repair ($17.41)

Healthcare practitioner and technical ($26.62)

Education, training, and library ($19.55)

Food preparation and serving related ($8.31)

Sales and related ($15.02)

Occupation group (with mean hourly wage shown in parenthese

Employment level

 

17.8%

 major occupational groups in the SOC. The OES survey

does not cover military specific occupations. Chart 1 displays employment, the percentage of total employment, and

the mean wage for each of these groups. The chart is arrayed

by employment, with the largest occupational group on the

top and the smallest group on the bottom.

In terms of employment, the 22 occupational groups fall

into three broad categories. The first consists of five groups

with the largest employment. They are office and administrative support; sales and related; production; food preparation and serving related; transportation and material moving.

These groups together account for more than one-half of

total employment, or about 66 million workers. Of the five,

the office and administrative support group, with about 22.7

million workers, is the largest, and the transportation and

material moving group, withmore than 9.4 million workers, is

the smallest. The mean wage in each of these five major groups

is less than the mean wage for all workers across occupational groups ($17.41). The food preparation and serving related group has a mean wage of $8.31 per hour, the lowest

among all occupational groups.

A second category consists of five occupational groups

with midsize employment. Accounting for more than onequarter of total employment, or 32 million workers, these

groups are education, training, and library; management;

healthcare practitioner and technical; construction and extraction; and installation, maintenance, and repair. The mean

wage estimates in these groups range from twice the mean

wage for all workers to wages that are about the same as the

mean for all workers. The management group, with about 6.7

million workers, has the second largest employment among

the midsize occupational groups and the highest mean wage

among all occupational groups. The installation, maintenance,

and repair group, with 5.2 million workers, has the smallest

employment and lowest mean wage among the midsize occupational groups.

The remaining 12 occupational groups account for 23.9

percent of total employment, or 29.3 million workers. Among

these, the business and financial operations group, with

around 4.9 million workers, has the largest employment, and

the farming, fishing, and forestry occupations, with fewer

than 0.5 million, the smallest. Four of the twelve smallest

occupational groups—legal; computer and mathematical; architecture and engineering; and business and financial operations—have the second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-highest mean wage, respectively, among all occupational groups.

Another four—farming, fishing, and forestry; building and

grounds cleaning and maintenance; personal care and serBuilding and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($10.21)

8.2%

8.0%

7.4%

Production ($13.80)

Food preparation and serving related ($8.31)

Transportation and material moving ($13.27)

Management ($39.80)

Installation, maintenance, and repair ($17.41)

Life, physical, and social science ($25.58)

Legal ($37.94)

Farming, fishing, and forestry ($9.71)

2.2%

Office and administratrve support ($13.59)

Sales and related ($15.02)

Education, training, and library ($19.55)

Healthcare practitioner and technical ($26.62)

Construction and extraction ($17.62)

Business and financial operations ($26.71)

Healthcare support ($10.94)

Protective service ($16.39)

Personal care and service ($10.28)

Computer and mathematical science ($30.40)

Architectural and engineering ($28.48)

Community and social service ($17.03)

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media ($20.49)

10.6%

6.1%

5.2%

4.8%

4.8%

4.1%

3.9%

3.3%

2.5%

2.4%

2.3%

1.9%

1.3%

1.2%

.9%

.8%

.4%

0 10,000,000 5,000,000 15,000,000 20,000,000 25,000,000

Employment level

Chart 1. Mean hourly wage and percent of total employment by major occupational group, May 2003 Occupational group (with mean hourly wage shown in parentheses)
5

(1)

(1)

vice; and healthcare support—have the second-, third-,

fourth-, and fifth-lowest mean wage, respectively, among all

occupational groups.

Percentile wages by occupational group

In addition to total employment and mean wage by major

occupational group, text table 1 also displays the 10th-, 25th-,

50th-, 75th-, and 90th-percentile wages for each of the 22

major occupational groups. A percentile wage shows the

percentage of workers in an occupation who earn less than a

given wage and the percentage who earn more.

For example, the 50th-percentile wage, or median wage, is

the pay level at which 50 percent of workers earn more and 50

percent earn less. Likewise, 10 percent of workers earn less

than the 10th-percentile wage and 90 percent of workers earn

less than the 90th-percentile wage. The middle 80 percent of

workers in an occupational group earn wages between these

two endpoints.

As indicated earlier, the lowest paid occupational group

is the food preparation and serving related occupations. This

is clearly indicated by the fact that, for each percentile wage

shown, the food preparation and serving related group wage

is lower than that for any of the other groups. In addition to

being the lowest paid occupational group, the food preparation and serving related occupations have the narrowest

distribution of wages among all occupational groups. Ten

percent of the workers in this group, approximately 1 million,

earn less than $5.77 per hour, while ninety percent of the

workers earn less than $12.20 per hour, a difference of only

$6.43 per hour.

In addition to having the highest mean wage, the management occupations have the second widest distribution

of wages between the 10th- and the 90th-percentile wage.

Ten percent of workers in this group earn less than $16.15

per hour, while ninety percent earn less than $70.00 per hour,

a difference of at least $53.85 per hour. However, the management group does not have the highest wages in all percentile wage categories. The group ranks second in the

10th-percentile category. The largest distribution of wages

is among legal occupations, which has a difference of at

least $56.45 between the 10th- and 90th-percentile wages.

As shown in text table 1, the mean wage in every occupational group is higher than the 50th-percentile, or median,

wage for that group, suggesting that the top half of workers

have a wider wage distribution than do the lower half. In

other words, the distribution of wages in each occupational

group is skewed towards the higher end of the wage range.

Chart 2 uses the percentile wages from text table 1 to

graphically display the wage distribution for each major occupational group. Combined, the portions of the bars represent the middle 80 percent of the distribution for each group.

The left endpoint of the bar indicates the 10th-percentile

Chart 2. Wage distribution by occupational group, May 2003

10th

percentile

25th

percentile

75th

percentile

90th

percentile

$16.15

$13.55

$15.61

$14.84

$13.66

$11.49

$11.95

$7.69

$7.47

$8.01

$9.11

$9.11

$28.66

$9.14 $27.14

$27.22

$28.92

$43.74

$43.10

$36.15

$32.98

$6.38 $28.99

$7.53 $22.69

$20.92

$6.85

$7.70

$21.55

$7.21 $15.99

$6.03 $16.83

$6.32 $15.75

$6.34 $15.59

$5.77 $12.20

$0 $10 $30 $20 $40 $50 $60 $70

Hourly wages

$47.12

$44.25

$42.79

1 Represents a wage above $70 per hour.

Management

Legal

Computer and mathematical

Architecture and engineering

Business and financial operations

Healthcare practitioners and technical

Life, physical, and social science

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

Education, training, and library

Construction and extraction

Installation, maintenance, and repair

Protective service

Community and social services

Healthcare support

Farming, fishing, and forestry

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

 Personal care and service

Sales and related

Office and administrative support

Transportation and material moving

Food preparation and serving related

Production
6

Text table 2. Mean wages for selected OES occupations and three-digit NAICS industries, May 2003

Chief executive. .......................................................... $58.07 $76.80 $82.35 $56.83 $70.58 $45.28 $44.37 $53.87

Training and development specialists ....................... 24.13 33.57 32.51 15.71 22.06 15.97 15.85 20.21

Accountants and auditors ......................................... 27.05 28.86 27.66 21.66 23.79 21.15 21.02 24.64

Sales representatives, wholesale and

 manufacturing, except technical and scientific

 products .................................................................... 24.11 31.68 28.67 21.30 26.32 16.67 18.69 18.66

Secretaries, except legal, medical, and

 executive ................................................................... 10.28 15.61 15.07 11.22 13.45 11.19 11.21 10.84

Janitors and cleaners, except maids and

 housekeeping workers ............................................ 8.48 13.84 11.37 8.69 8.80 8.33 8.37 8.14

Security guards .......................................................... 9.02 19.66 14.84 13.01 14.66 10.07 9.57 13.30

Receptionists and information clerks ........................ 10.15 12.91 12.03 9.99 10.74 9.61 10.25 8.48

Occupation

Industry

wage and the right endpoint of the bar indicates the 90thpercentile wage. Similarly, the inner bar segment between the

25th and 75th percentiles shows the middle 50 percent of the

distribution for each of the occupational groups.

As shown in chart 2, the width of the wage distribution

for both the middle 80 percent and middle 50 percent of workers in an occupational group declines with the mean wage of

that group. Wages for the middle 50 percent of workers are

skewed to varying degrees toward the lower end of the pay

distribution for all occupational groups. Most noticeable in

this regard are the farming, fishing, and forestry; personal

care and service; and sales and related groups, with only 69

cents, 91 cents, and $1.17, respectively, separating the 10thpercentile wage from the 25th-percentile wage. The amounts

separating the 75th-percentile wage from the 90th-percentile

wage in those three occupational groups are, respectively,

$4.69, $5.57, and $11.64, at least 6 times the amounts separating the 10th-percentile wage from the 25th-percentile wage.

By contrast, wages for the middle 50 percent of workers in

the computer and mathematical; architecture and engineering; education, training, and library; and installation, maintenance, and repair groups are comparatively less skewed toward the lower end of the pay distribution. In these

occupational groups, the amounts separating the 75th-percentile wage from the 90th-percentile wage are at most twice

the amounts separating the 10th-percentile wage from the

25th-percentile wage.

In addition to cross-industry estimates for the 22 major

occupational groups, the OES program produces detailed

occupational wages across all industries. These estimates

show that wages for detailed occupations can vary substantially within a major occupational group. This is due to the

fact that major occupational groups incorporate data from as

many as 75 specific occupations in their mean hourly wages.

For example, the legal occupations group includes occupations such as lawyers and legal secretaries. The wages and

employment for both are included in the overall wage and

employment estimates for legal occupations, even though

the mean hourly wage of lawyers is almost 3 times the wage

of legal secretaries. The shares of employment accounted

for by these occupations will affect the wages for the entire

legal occupations group. Because of these variations, comparative wages for detailed occupations in different major

occupational groups might not follow the overall pattern of

wage difference noted between their respective major groups.

Table 1 of this publication shows these variations.

Occupational wages by three-digit NAICS industry

The OES program also produces detailed occupational wages

by industry major groups at the three-digit, four-digit, and

selected five-digit industry level within the North American

Industry Classification System (NAICS). Text table 2 shows

the mean wage for eight selected OES occupations in eight

selected three-digit industries. Wages for detailed occupations vary according to industry, as illustrated in the table.

For example, while chief executives have high overall wages

compared with other detailed occupations, the mean wage

for chief executives itself varies depending on the industry

in which they are employed.

In fact, among the occupations for which data are shown

in text table 2, chief executives show the largest variation in

wages, with $37.98 separating the highest paying industry

from the lowest. The mean wage for chief executives ranges

from $82.35 per hour in the petroleum and coal products

manufacturing industry to $44.37 per hour in the food services and drinking industry. Another large difference between industries, $17.86, occurs for the occupation of training and development specialist workers. The hourly mean

wage for these workers ranges from $33.57 per hour in the

utilities industry to $15.85 per hour in food services and

drinking industry. The occupation of receptionists and information clerks, exhibits a smaller variation among the selected industries, with $4.43 separating the highest wage

from the lowest. The mean wage of this occupation across

Support

activities

for

agriculture and

forestry

Utilities

Petroleum and

coal

products

manufacturing

Credit

intermediation

and

related

activities

Social

assistance

Personal

and

laundry

services

Food

services

and

drinking

places

Food

and

beverage

stores
7

the eight selected industries ranges from $12.91 per hour in

utilities to $8.48 per hour in personal and laundry services.

Similarly, mean wages vary across occupations in an industry. The utilities industry has the highest wages among

industries shown for all occupations except chief executives,

for which it has the second highest wage. It is interesting

that, while the highest wages for each occupation are fairly

concentrated in this single industry, the lowest wages are

found in five industries. Because text table 2 shows only a

sample of industries and occupations, it may not reflect the

overall wage pattern for a given industry. Detailed information about industries and occupational employment and wage

estimates at the three-digit industry level are available on the

OES Web site at www.bls.gov/oes/.