DATA QUALITY

Why Government Salary Data Is More Reliable Than Crowdsourced Estimates

5 min read·BLS OES May 2024

The core problem with crowdsourced salary sites is selection bias: only certain types of workers share their compensation. Research consistently shows that high earners — particularly in tech — are dramatically overrepresented on Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and similar platforms. The workers who post their salaries are disproportionately in major metro areas, at name-brand companies, and have salaries worth sharing. The result is figures that can be 20–40% above what most workers in a given title actually earn.

How BLS Collects Its Data

The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program avoids this problem by surveying employers directly. The May 2024 release drew from approximately 1.1 million employer establishments across all industries, producing wage estimates that are statistically representative of actual employment. Methodology, sample sizes, and confidence intervals are all publicly documented and peer-reviewed — transparency that no crowdsourced platform can match. In states that participate in mandatory reporting, response rates exceed 75%.

Limitations to Know

That said, BLS data has its own limitations. It reflects base wages only — bonuses, equity, and benefits are excluded. It’s also published with an 18-month lag (May 2024 data was collected through May 2024 and released in late 2024), so it may understate salaries in rapidly growing fields. And the occupation groupings are broad enough that a “software developer” ranges from a junior web developer to a principal engineer. These limitations are real and worth understanding.

How to Use Both Data Sources

The right approach is to use BLS data as your floor — the reliable baseline — and supplement it with role-specific market data when negotiating for a specific position. BLS tells you where the market actually is; Levels.fyi or recruiter intel tells you where the ceiling is for your specific title and company tier. In salary negotiations, BLS is the defensible anchor. When evaluating offers, the more granular sources help you calibrate whether an offer is truly competitive for your exact situation.

BLS OES 2024 · 116 Occupations

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Frequently Asked Questions

A salary percentile tells you what percentage of workers in a given occupation earn less than you. For example, if you're at the 70th percentile, you earn more than 70% of workers in that field. It's a more useful benchmark than a simple average because it shows where you stand across the full distribution of wages.

We use linear interpolation between the BLS wage anchor points (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) to estimate your exact percentile rank. State figures are derived by applying BLS regional wage indices to the national data. For salaries below the 10th or above the 90th percentile, we flag this clearly rather than extrapolating an unreliable estimate.

All data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) program, May 2024 release. This is the most comprehensive, official source of US occupational wage data, covering over 800 occupations and nearly every industry. We cover 116 occupation groups across all 50 states and Washington D.C.

If you're below the median (50th percentile) for your occupation in your state, you have a data-backed argument for a raise. Come prepared with your percentile result and the BLS benchmark figures from the table below the gauge. Framing your ask around official government data — rather than salary sites — is often more persuasive to employers and hiring managers.

According to BLS OES May 2024 data, the median annual wage across all occupations in the United States is approximately $49,500. However, this varies enormously by occupation — from around $30,000 for food preparation workers to over $236,000 for physicians and surgeons. That's why comparing within your specific occupation is far more meaningful than a national cross-occupation average.