To reduce paperwork and respondent burden, no survey form contains every SOC occupation. Thus, data for specific occupations are collected primarily from establishments within industries that are the predominant employers of labor in those occupations. Wages for the OES survey are straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay. Excluded are back pay, jury duty pay, overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, and tuition reimbursements. The OES survey collects wage data in 12 intervals.
Employers report the number of employees in an occupation per each wage range.
Mean wage is the estimated total wages for an occupation divided by its weighted survey employment. These interval mean wage values are then attributed to all workers reported in the interval. For each occupation, total weighted wages in each interval are summed across all intervals and divided by the occupation's weighted survey employment. Many employees are paid at an hourly rate by their employers and may work less than or more than 40 hours per week. Thus, the annual wage estimates may not represent the actual annual pay received by the employee if they work fewer than 2,080 hours per year.