About Careers and Salaries
Careers and Salaries answers two questions for US workers and students: how much a job really pays, and what it takes to get it. Every figure comes from official federal data, and every guide cites the organizations that set the rules.
What we publish
For each of 150 careers we publish a pay page and a how-to-become guide. The pay page shows the official median and range, pay in every state and the best-paying metro areas, pay after cost of living, pay by type of employer, a ten-year trend, the outlook and what the training costs against what the job pays. The guide sets out each step with its time and cost, the education options, exams, licenses and where the career can lead.
We also publish rankings computed from every occupation BLS covers, hourly-to-annual conversions for every whole-dollar wage from $10 to $100 with tax estimates for every state, a salary calculator and a career ROI calculator.
Why we built it
Career decisions involve years of training and real money, yet the salary figures people find online often disagree by tens of thousands of dollars, rarely say where they come from and are seldom tied to what it costs to get the job. The official data that answers these questions is public but spread across several agencies and published under official titles that few people search for. We bring it together under the job titles people actually use, explain it in plain language and keep it current.
How it is made
The data pages are generated from the official files (May 2025 OEWS pay data, 2025–2035 BLS projections, O*NET 31.0, College Scorecard and BEA price parities) by code that is rerun with each new release, so every page uses the same figures. The written parts of each career page and guide are drafted with AI assistance from a research file, checked in a separate fact-checking pass against the cited exam bodies, accreditors, licensing boards and agencies, and reviewed against our editorial policy. The methodology explains every calculation.
Independence and money
Not affiliated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics or any government agency. We show no ads, take no payment from schools, training providers or employers, and include no affiliate or lead-generation links. If that changes, advertising will be labeled and kept apart from editorial content; see disclosures.
Contact and corrections
Email [email protected]. If a figure or rule on this site is wrong, tell us where you saw it and what the source says; we check every report and correct confirmed errors. See the contact page.
Who publishes this site
The company that publishes Careers and Salaries is identified in our privacy policy. You can reach us at [email protected].