The source: BLS OEWS, May 2025
OEWS is a survey of US employers run by the BLS. It publishes wage estimates by occupation, nationally and by state. We import the national file (830 detailed occupations loaded) and, where available, the state file, with a reproducible script. We keep only “detailed” occupations for job pages and show the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th and 90th percentiles of annual wages.
BLS data is in the public domain. We show “Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025” under every number. We don't use the BLS logo, and BLS doesn't endorse PayCall.
What the numbers include — and don't
- Included: base wages, including commissions, production bonuses and tips.
- Not included: year-end or non-production bonuses, stock, profit sharing, overtime and benefits. Self-employed people are not covered.
- That's why we call it base pay, not total compensation. Your real offer may include more.
- Some very high wages are top-coded by BLS: the true value is at least the number shown, so we show it with a “+”.
- Missing values (marked * or ** by BLS) stay empty. We never fill them in.
How we suggest a target and an opening number
By years of experience we pick a percentile range: 0–2 years 25th–50th, 3–5 years 50th–75th, 6–10 years 60th–80th (interpolated), 10+ years 75th–90th. Your suggested opening number (anchor) is the top of that range plus 5%, rounded to the nearest $1,000 — and never more than 1.1× the 90th percentile unless you tell us you have a reason, such as a competing offer. This is guidance, not a guarantee.
Job titles and occupations
BLS uses Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes. Some everyday job titles map to a broader BLS occupation — for example “software engineer” is part of “Software Developers”, and “cyber security” is part of “Information Security Analysts”. Our job pages say so when that happens.
How we use AI
- The practice counterpart, the coach hints and the debrief are generated by AI models. The counterpart's hidden budget and its limit are set by our own rules and enforced on our server.
- Drafts of our guides and job pages are written with AI assistance. Every number in them is pulled from the BLS data or from a short list of sourced facts — never typed in by hand or made up. Each page is reviewed before we publish it, and job pages are only published when they have real BLS data and are clearly different from each other.
- We don't show reviewer names until real HR advisors review a page, and we never invent people, reviews or user numbers.
Our own analysis
See negotiation room by occupation for how wide the pay spread is per job — with a CSV download and methodology.