The highest paying jobs in the United States
Ranked by median annual wage among the 823 detailed occupations the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes, so it reflects what people in the job actually earn rather than what the best paid few earn.
Highest median annual wage
US$559,030
Pediatric Surgeons
Median for all occupations
US$50,980
May 2025
Como ler este número
How to read this figure
De onde vem o dado
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 national estimates
Cuidado
What this number does not tell you
O que fazer com isso
What to do with this figure
The 30 highest paying occupations
Medicine dominates the top of the list, followed by senior management, airline pilots and a few legal and engineering roles. Employment numbers matter: some of these occupations employ only a few thousand people nationally.
Occupations with the highest median annual wage, May 2025
| Occupation | SOC code | Median annual wage | Mean annual wage | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pediatric Surgeons | 29-1243 | US$559,030 | US$502,050 | 1,190 |
| Cardiologists | 29-1212 | US$496,010 | US$454,940 | 17,290 |
| Radiologists | 29-1224 | US$420,860 | US$381,530 | 26,770 |
| Surgeons, All Other | 29-1249 | US$414,010 | US$373,930 | 25,140 |
| Anesthesiologists | 29-1211 | US$391,490 | US$360,570 | 38,760 |
| Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric | 29-1242 | US$358,550 | US$373,570 | 14,100 |
| Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons | 29-1022 | US$352,220 | US$346,490 | 4,910 |
| Emergency Medicine Physicians | 29-1214 | US$335,550 | US$317,480 | 32,880 |
| Dermatologists | 29-1213 | US$328,730 | US$323,530 | 11,370 |
| Physicians, Pathologists | 29-1222 | US$312,400 | US$285,420 | 11,110 |
| Prosthodontists | 29-1024 | US$311,180 | US$268,630 | 870 |
| Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric | 29-1241 | US$300,080 | US$304,650 | 8,950 |
| Obstetricians and Gynecologists | 29-1218 | US$292,910 | US$279,040 | 21,260 |
| Orthodontists | 29-1023 | US$289,140 | US$259,400 | 6,210 |
| Psychiatrists | 29-1223 | US$281,870 | US$269,940 | 27,980 |
| Physicians, All Other | 29-1229 | US$265,930 | US$262,040 | 342,720 |
| General Internal Medicine Physicians | 29-1216 | US$256,560 | US$267,200 | 67,150 |
| Neurologists | 29-1217 | US$248,560 | US$267,630 | 10,590 |
| Family Medicine Physicians | 29-1215 | US$244,180 | US$255,820 | 107,510 |
| Nurse Anesthetists | 29-1151 | US$236,590 | US$248,320 | 51,840 |
| Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers | 53-2011 | US$232,140 | US$288,650 | 103,560 |
| Dentists, All Other Specialists | 29-1029 | US$224,990 | US$247,930 | 5,230 |
| Chief Executives | 11-1011 | US$213,990 | US$269,630 | 204,350 |
| Pediatricians, General | 29-1221 | US$210,040 | US$212,110 | 39,390 |
| Industrial-Organizational Psychologists | 19-3032 | US$193,950 | US$170,230 | 790 |
| Computer and Information Systems Managers | 11-3021 | US$175,140 | US$192,160 | 670,570 |
| Physicists | 19-2012 | US$172,250 | US$171,180 | 20,430 |
| Architectural and Engineering Managers | 11-9041 | US$171,270 | US$181,540 | 220,260 |
| Dentists, General | 29-1021 | US$170,950 | US$191,350 | 124,390 |
| Natural Sciences Managers | 11-9121 | US$167,220 | US$180,250 | 108,690 |
BLS does not publish a wage above $239,200 a year; occupations at that level are shown at the cap.
Why some well-paid jobs are missing
The survey covers employees on a payroll. Self-employed people — many doctors, dentists, lawyers and company founders among them — are outside it, so occupations where self-employment is common look smaller and sometimes lower paid than they are.
BLS also stops publishing a figure above $239,200 a year, so several of the top occupations are reported at that ceiling rather than at their true average.
How does the highest paying jobs in the united states compare with the rest of the United States?
At US$559,030, the highest paying jobs in the united states is well above the US$50,980 that average salary by occupation in the united states publishes for the United States as a whole — a difference of 997%. That gap is the first thing worth checking before comparing two job offers.
What does "May 2025" mean for the highest paying jobs in the united states?
The figures for the highest paying jobs in the united states come from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 national estimates, with a reference period of May 2025. Pay statistics like this one are not updated in real time: the underlying survey or register takes months to collect and process, so the number reflects pay around that date, not today. Downloaded file: oesm25nat.zip (national_M2025_dl.xlsx). Wages at or above $239,200 a year are published by BLS only as "equal to or greater than" that amount.
Glossário: os termos desta página
Median vs. mean
The median is the middle value when every salary is lined up from lowest to highest: half earn less, half earn more. The mean is the simple average. A handful of very high salaries pulls the mean up without moving the median, so the median is usually the better guide to what a typical person earns.
Full-time equivalent
A way of converting part-time hours into the pay a full-time version of the same job would earn, so that a two-day-a-week role can be compared fairly with a five-day one. Figures that mix full-time and part-time workers without adjusting for this tend to understate typical full-time pay.
Coefficient of variation
A measure of how much an estimate could be off, expressed as a percentage of the estimate itself. Statistical agencies use it to flag figures based on too small a sample: a high coefficient of variation means the number should be read as a rough order of magnitude, not an exact figure.
Fonte: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) — Office for National Statistics.
Reference period
The point in time, or the stretch of time, that a published figure actually describes. Pay surveys take months to collect and process, so the reference period is usually well before the date the figures are released, and always before the date you are reading them.
Occupational classification
A standard code that groups similar jobs so that pay statistics can be compared across employers and over time — the UK uses SOC, Canada uses NOC, the United States uses SOC as well, and the European Union uses ISCO. The same job title can sit in different codes depending on the classification used.
Fonte: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Pay statistics glossary — todos os 10 termos.
Licence: U.S. government work, public domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)
Reference period: May 2025
Data collected on: 7 October 2026
Downloaded file: oesm25nat.zip (national_M2025_dl.xlsx). Wages at or above $239,200 a year are published by BLS only as "equal to or greater than" that amount.
Figures are statistical averages for a whole group of employees. Your own pay depends on your employer, your experience, your hours and where you work.