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Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
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Percentile Wages
A percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percentage of workers fall.
The following table provides an example of an occupation's percentile wages:
| Percentile | 10th | 25th | 50th Median |
75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly Wage | $11.00 | $15.00 | $20.00 | $24.00 | $29.00 |
| Annual Wage | $22,880 | $31,200 | $41,600 | $49,920 | $60,320 |
The hourly wage estimates in this example indicate that:
- 10 percent of employees earn less than $11.00 per hour; therefore the remaining 90 percent earn more than $11.00 per hour.
- 25 percent earn less than $15.00; 75 percent earn more than $15.00.
- 50 percent earn less than $20.00; 50 percent earn more than $20.00. (The 50th percentile is called the median.)
- 75 percent earn less than $24.00; 25 percent earn more than $24.00.
- 90 percent earn less than $29.00; 10 percent earn more than $29.00.
The annual wage estimates in this example indicate that:
- 10 percent of employees earn less than $22,880 per year; therefore the remaining 90 percent earn more than $22,880 per year.
- 25 percent earn less than $31,200; 75 percent earn more than $31,200.
- 50 percent earn less than $41,600; 50 percent earn more than $41,600. (The 50th percentile is called the median.)
- 75 percent earn less than $49,920; 25 percent earn more than $49,920.
- 90 percent earn less than $60,320; 10 percent earn more than $60,320.
Can I take the average of percentile wages?
BLS does not recommend calculating averages of percentile wages. With percentile wages, the percentile wage estimate for a combination of occupations typically will not equal the average of the percentile wages for the individual detailed occupations in the combination. This can be due to a variety of factors, but the primary reason is that taking the average or mean of percentile estimates does not accurately account for the unequal size and distributions of wages within the individual detailed occupations. Consider the following example from the OEWS national, cross-industry estimates for the human resource workers broad occupation (13-1070) in May 2024.
| Occupation Title | Occupation Code | Occupation Group | Total Employment | 90th Percentile Annual Wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Human Resources Workers |
13-1070 | broad | 982,460 | $128,180 |
Within this broad group there are three detailed occupations, Human Resources Specialists (13-1071, and by far the largest occupation in the group), Farm Labor Contractors (13-1074), and Labor Relations Specialists (13-1075).
| Occupation Title | Occupation Code | Occupation Group | Total Employment | 90th Percentile Annual Wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Human Resources Specialists |
13-1071 | detailed | 917,460 | $126,540 |
|
Farm Labor Contractors |
13-1074 | detailed | 410 | 86,860 |
|
Labor Relations Specialists |
13-1075 | detailed | 64,590 | 153,440 |
From the table we can calculate the simple average of the 90th percentile annual wages as $122,280 as shown below.
We can also calculate the weighted average of the 90th percentile annual wages to be $128,292 by using each occupation's total employment to weight as shown below.
Neither the simple average nor the weighted average equals the 90th percentile wage of $128,180 for the broad occupation. The weighted average is closer to the 90th percentile wage value because weighting by employment accounts for the relative size of each occupation within the group. However, the weighted average is not equal to the actual 90th percentile annual wage because it does not fully account for the differences in the distribution or spread of wages between each detailed occupation.
Additionally, there are some other reasons why calculations based on detailed wages do not equal an aggregate wage including:
- OEWS calculates estimates using unrounded values and then rounds the estimates for publication. Therefore, calculations based on the rounded values may slightly differ from the published estimates.
- Individual occupational employment and wage estimates may not be available because they do not meet OEWS publication standards. Please see Why are there no estimates for a particular occupation in a specific area or industry? for more information on unreleased estimates. If published data are not available for all of the occupations in the combination, taking an average of the available wages may not provide an accurate wage estimate for the combination because the calculation will exclude data for the occupations that could not be published separately.
- Due to features of the OEWS wage estimation methodology, we do not release percentile wage estimates that are above a wage threshold determined by the boundary of the open-ended wage interval in our survey collection materials. As a result, exact values for percentile wage estimates may be unavailable for especially high-paying occupations. You can find more information about our methodology in our technical note and survey methods statement.
Last Modified Date: September 15, 2025