Understanding BLS Wage Data: A Deep Dive into Geographic and Occupational Pay Insights

By Team SalaryCalculate · 6/20/2025

Understanding BLS Wage Data: A Deep Dive into Geographic and Occupational Pay Insights

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the gold standard for wage data in the United States. Whether you're a business leader setting compensation, a job seeker negotiating salary, or a policymaker assessing labor trends, BLS wage data by area and occupation offers unmatched clarity on how—and where—Americans are paid.

But what makes this data truly powerful is not just the raw numbers—it’s how you use them to benchmark salaries, understand economic trends, and even compare pay structures globally, including with the UK and other economies.

What is BLS Wage Data and Why It Matters

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program by BLS collects annual wage data covering over 800 occupations across all 50 states and metro/non-metro areas.

Key Features:

• Wage percentiles: Includes 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentiles—helpful for understanding pay ranges across experience levels.
• Regional granularity: From national averages to metro-specific insights (e.g., New York, San Francisco, Austin).
• Occupation-specific: Covers both high-demand fields (tech, healthcare) and regional jobs (agriculture, manufacturing).
• Based on employer surveys: A large, statistically significant dataset with practical applications for pay planning.

Use the BLS Wage Data Tool by Area and Occupation to look up wages for specific jobs in your state or metro area.

How U.S. Employers Use BLS Data to Benchmark Salaries

Whether you're hiring locally or remotely, BLS data is critical for setting competitive salaries:

• Helps companies align offers with local cost of living and labor demand.
• Supports equity initiatives by showing median wages across demographics and regions.
• Assists HR and compensation teams in designing pay bands and job leveling structures.

Example:

Hiring a software engineer in Denver vs. San Jose? The BLS data shows median salaries by metro area to ensure accurate, location-based compensation.

BLS Wage Data and International Comparisons

While the BLS focuses on the U.S., global companies and remote-first teams use BLS data as a baseline for international comparisons. For example:

• A U.S. company hiring in the UK may compare BLS median wages to data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) to maintain internal pay parity.
• Cross-border salary planning (e.g., U.S. base, UK remote team) may use both datasets and tools like the OECD Global Wage Comparison to contextualize pay.

📍 Insightful resource:
Try the OECD wage comparison tool for country-to-country average wage data, including tax-adjusted comparisons.

Using BLS Data to Spot Trends and Plan for the Future

While not designed as a forecasting tool, BLS wage data is invaluable for spotting emerging labor trends, including:

• Wage growth in high-demand sectors like AI, clean energy, and healthcare.
• Shifts in regional competitiveness driven by remote work and cost of living changes.
• Identifying occupations with widening wage inequality, useful for workforce development planning.

📍 Long-term trend data:
Explore the BLS Data Finder for historical wage and employment trends across time.

FAQs: BLS Wage Data for U.S. Professionals

Q1: Is BLS data relevant outside the U.S.?
Yes—while focused on U.S. workers, BLS data is frequently used in international salary comparisons and is referenced by global compensation software and HR teams.

Q2: How is BLS data helpful for benchmarking?
BLS data provides occupation-level wage benchmarks, helping employers align pay with the market and ensuring internal consistency.

Q3: Can BLS wage data predict future wage trends?
It’s not a forecasting tool, but it’s a strong indicator. Economists use BLS data alongside projections from the Employment Projections program to model future labor trends.

Conclusion: Why BLS Wage Data is a Must-Have for Salary Strategy

Whether you're a U.S. employer competing for top talent, or a professional evaluating your worth, BLS wage data offers unparalleled transparency into compensation by occupation and region. And for organizations working across borders, it’s a valuable benchmark for understanding how U.S. pay stacks up internationally.

Use our selection of US salary tools by region to see how you wage is is affected by your US location.