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Editorial standards

Methodology

Salary Atlas presents wage data sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This page explains where each figure comes from, how we transform it, what we do not claim, and how often the data is refreshed.

Primary data source

All wage figures originate from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. OEWS surveys non-farm employers across the United States and publishes mean, median, and percentile (10th, 25th, 75th, 90th) wage estimates for roughly 800 detailed occupations. The dataset is updated once per year — the "May" release typically lands the following spring.

Mapping job titles to BLS data

BLS organizes data by Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. We maintain a mapping of common job-title slugs to SOC codes — for example, "ultrasound-tech" maps to SOC 29-2032 (Diagnostic Medical Sonographers), and "rn" maps to SOC 29-1141 (Registered Nurses). Where a slug is a synonym (e.g. "sonographer" and "ultrasound-tech"), both pages display the same underlying BLS figures, with the slug noted on the page.

Hourly equivalents and experience bands

Hourly equivalents are calculated as annual wage ÷ 2,080 hours (40 hours/week × 52 weeks). For salaried roles this is an approximation; actual hours worked vary. Experience-level estimates (entry, early-career, mid-career, experienced, senior) are derived from BLS percentile bands rather than from BLS's own tenure-based statistics. We label these as estimates explicitly on every role page.

What we do not do

  • — We do not fabricate or estimate wages for occupations we do not have BLS data for.
  • — We do not make trend claims ("salaries are rising") that are not supported by a year-over-year BLS comparison on the same SOC code.
  • — We do not paywall, login-wall, or upsell the underlying data. The same figures are available directly on bls.gov.
  • — We do not scrape Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or self-reported salary sites and present those numbers as authoritative.

Refresh cadence

BLS publishes new OEWS estimates annually. Following each release, we rebuild every role page with the new figures. Each role page displays the data release year (e.g. "May 2023") above the fold so readers always know how recent the underlying data is.

Corrections

If you spot a figure that conflicts with the latest BLS OEWS release, please write to [email protected]. We treat OEWS as authoritative and will update or correct any divergence within one business day.