Know the number before you're asked for it
Median and percentile pay for 180 roles, in every US state, from the federal wage survey the Bureau of Labor Statistics runs on employers. Not self-reported, not crowdsourced, not behind a give-us-your-salary wall. Cited, and free to read.
One number loses you money. A range wins you the conversation.
Recruiters negotiate against a band, so you should too. Every role page here gives you the whole ladder rather than a single average.
The midpoint
The median: half of people in the occupation earn more, half earn less. This is your anchor, and it is a better anchor than the average, which a few very high earners quietly inflate.
The band you live in
The 25th to 75th percentile: where most of the occupation actually sits. If your ask falls inside this band, it is hard to call unreasonable.
The ceiling to aim at
The 90th percentile: the top of the published range, which is where senior scope and scarce specialisms land. Useful for knowing what is even on the table.
Start with your role
Each role page carries the national percentile ladder plus a state-by-state table, so you can see both the market and your market.
Where the numbers come from
One source, named: the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, run by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It surveys employers, not employees, which is why it does not depend on anyone remembering their own offer correctly. It covers roughly 830 occupations nationally, in all 50 states and around 400 metro areas.
Because it is a federal statistical product it is in the public domain. The Bureau's own copyright page says its published material is free to use without specific permission, and asks only to be cited as the source — so every page here cites it. That is the whole arrangement.
What it does not cover, stated plainly
- No equity, and no annual bonus. The survey measures wages and salaries. For roles where stock is a large slice of the offer, read these figures as the cash floor of the conversation, not the whole offer.
- No per-company or per-level detail. There is no federal statistic for what one company pays at one level. Sites that publish that collect it themselves and license it; their terms do not permit us to copy it, and we have not.
- It lags. The survey publishes annually and estimates wages as of May of its reference year. Each page states its own period. Good for a range, slower to reflect a sudden shift in one specialism.
- Some estimates are withheld. Where a sample is too thin to be reliable, the Bureau publishes nothing. Those cells read "not published" here, never zero.
- Occupations, not job titles. Where a modern title has no federal occupation behind it, the page names the closest surveyed occupation and labels it as a comparable rather than pretending the government measured that job.
Source. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Public-domain federal data, reproduced with attribution. ChannelPulse is not affiliated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and these figures are information rather than an offer, a guarantee, or financial advice.
Questions people actually ask
Why percentiles instead of one average salary?
An average is easy to quote and almost useless in a negotiation. A handful of very high earners drags the mean upward, so the average usually sits above what a typical person in the job earns. The median gives you the midpoint; the 25th-to-75th band gives you where most people actually are. To justify an ask above the midpoint, point at the 75th and 90th.
Why does a figure sometimes say "not published"?
The Bureau withholds an estimate when the sample behind it is too small to be reliable, or when releasing it could identify a single employer. That is a blank, not a zero — so we print "not published" rather than a 0 or a dash that could be read as nil.
Does this include stock and bonuses?
No. Wages and salaries only, including production bonuses and tips, but excluding stock grants, most annual bonuses, and benefits. Where equity matters, treat these as the cash-salary part of the conversation and ask about the rest separately.
Why does my job title show a different occupation name?
The government surveys occupations, and companies invent titles faster than the occupation list changes. Where there is no direct match, the page names the nearest surveyed occupation and says it is a comparable. The alternative — attaching a federal wage to a job the federal government never measured — would be making up a statistic.
How do I actually use this in an interview?
Anchor on the median for your role and your state, then place yourself in the band with evidence: scope, years, results. Give a range whose bottom you would genuinely accept, and name the source out loud. Then practise saying it — the number is the easy part, and the flinch is what costs people money.
Knowing the range is half of it
The other half is saying it out loud without hedging. ChannelPulse plays the interviewer, asks the compensation question the way a recruiter asks it, pushes back once, and scores how you answered. Free for 7 days, no card required.
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