How to Read Salary Data Like an Analyst

The Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey collects wages from employer payroll records across roughly a million establishments — not from whoever felt like typing their salary into a website. Self-reported data skews toward tech-savvy, higher-earning, city-based workers; payroll data doesn't care who volunteers. When Glassdoor says one number and BLS says another, BLS is the one a labor economist would cite.

The trade-off is freshness: OEWS is published annually (the May 2025 estimates were released in April 2026). In fast-moving fields, add a year of typical wage growth on top.

Using Registered Nurses in California as a live example:

• 10th percentile ($101,260) — entry territory. If an offer is below this, you are being lowballed even for a beginner.
• 25th percentile ($122,440) — typical early-career pay.
• Median ($140,270) — half earn more, half earn less. The single most honest "what does this job pay" number.
• 75th percentile ($173,170) — experienced, specialized, or well-negotiated. A realistic target, not a fantasy.
• 90th percentile ($213,320) — the top tier: leadership, overtime-heavy roles, premium employers.

Why median and not average? Averages get dragged upward by a few huge salaries. The median is immune to outliers — which is exactly why BLS leads with it, and so do we.

The same RN job pays a median of $140,270 in California and $77,080 in Alabama — nearly a 2× spread for identical work. But gross pay is the wrong comparison: state taxes and living costs eat very different shares. Every state page on this site shows an estimated take-home after federal, FICA, and state taxes, and links to the matching PaycheckTally calculator for your exact situation.

Practical negotiation move: anchor on the state table for your occupation. "The BLS median for this role in this state is X, and I bring above-median experience" is a sentence backed by the most credible dataset that exists.

• BLS OEWS — survey methodology and raw data (May 2025 estimates).