Where does your salary rank?
Enter your gross annual salary and pick your occupation to see which national wage percentile band you fall in — bottom 10%, bottom 25%, lower- or upper-middle, top 25% or top 10%. It compares your pay to the 10th, 25th, median, 75th and 90th percentile wages the BLS publishes for that job (OEWS, May 2024). All figures are gross (pre-tax).
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024. Data as of OEWS May 2024 (BLS), retrieved June 2026.
How the bands work
For any occupation, BLS publishes the wage at five points in the pay distribution. Your salary falls into one of these bands:
- Top 10% — at or above the 90th-percentile wage.
- Top 25% — between the 75th and 90th percentile.
- Upper-middle — between the median and the 75th percentile.
- Lower-middle — between the 25th percentile and the median.
- Bottom 25% — between the 10th and 25th percentile.
- Bottom 10% — below the 10th-percentile wage.
Read more about what these numbers mean on the wage percentiles explainer, or look up any job on the occupation pages.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my salary is good for my job?
Compare it to the pay distribution for your occupation. If you earn above the median, you are in the better-paid half; above the 75th percentile, the top quarter; above the 90th percentile, the top 10%. For example, a $133,080 salary is the median for software developers, and $211,450 is roughly the 90th percentile. Use the tool above with your own job and pay.
What percentile is my salary in?
Enter your gross annual salary and pick your occupation. The tool places you in a band — bottom 10%, bottom 25%, lower-middle, upper-middle, top 25% or top 10% — using the national 10th/25th/median/75th/90th-percentile wages BLS publishes for that occupation.
Is this based on take-home pay?
No. Both your input and the BLS figures are gross (pre-tax) annual wages. Do not subtract tax before entering your salary, or the comparison will be off.
Notes & accuracy
Percentile wages are from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024, gross annual wages, U.S. public domain. The bands are a transparent comparison of your input to those published percentiles — nothing is modelled or invented. National percentiles do not adjust for your state, metro, employer or experience, so treat the result as a rough national benchmark, not a precise placement. Information only, not career or financial advice. See our methodology.
Last updated: 2026-06-20