Data Sources
All data on WageBenchmark.com is from free public U.S. government sources. No scraped data, no aggregated self-reports.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
Primary source for all wage data
The OEWS program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations. Data are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. BLS surveys about 1.1 million business establishments semi-annually; results from three years of surveys are combined to produce estimates for the reference year.
BLS Employment Projections
10-year employment growth projections
BLS publishes projections for 750+ occupations every two years, covering the next 10-year period. Projections include employment levels at the start and end of the period, percent change, numeric change, and projected annual openings.
DOL Foreign Labor Certification (H-1B)
Employer-reported wages from H-1B visa applications
Before an employer can file an H-1B petition, they must file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the Department of Labor. LCAs include the occupation, wage level, actual wage offered, and employer location. These filings are public and provide useful supplemental wage data, especially for tech, consulting, and healthcare.
DOL FLC disclosure data →Note on BLS data suppression: BLS may suppress wage values (shown as "not available" on this site) when the estimated relative standard error exceeds a threshold or when there are too few sampled workers to produce a reliable estimate. We never estimate or interpolate suppressed values.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often is the salary data updated? +
BLS releases the OEWS wage survey once a year, typically in March or April, covering the prior May reference period. WageBenchmark reloads each release as it becomes available, and it currently includes multiple years of data so you can see wage trends over time.
Is the data scraped or self-reported? +
Neither. Every figure comes directly from official U.S. government datasets: BLS OEWS for wages, BLS Employment Projections for job growth, DOL Foreign Labor Certification for H-1B wages, BEA Regional Price Parities for cost of living, and O*NET for skills and education. There is no scraped or crowd-sourced data.
What is the H-1B wage data and where does it come from? +
Before filing an H-1B petition, employers must submit a Labor Condition Application to the Department of Labor stating the occupation, location, and wage offered. These filings are public and provide useful supplemental wage data, especially in technology, consulting, and healthcare.
How is cost of living measured on this site? +
Cost-of-living adjustments use the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities, which index local price levels against the U.S. average of 100. A figure of 120 means prices are about 20 percent above the national average, which is why a salary buys less there.
Can I cite or link to this data? +
Yes. All underlying data is in the public domain and we encourage citation and linking. We recommend also citing the original government source, which is linked on this page for each dataset.