Am I Underpaid? Salary Percentile Check

Most people answer this question with the wrong comparison. They look up the average US salary, or ask what a friend in another industry earns, and end up comparing themselves against the whole labor market instead of against the people doing their job. The average across all occupations tells you almost nothing about your own pay, because the spread inside a single occupation is usually wider than the gap between occupations.

The comparison that actually answers the question is a percentile inside your own occupation, in your own state. If you earn more than 68 percent of the people doing your job where you live, you are paid above the middle of that market and you know it precisely. If you are under the 25th percentile, three quarters of the people in your job and your state are paid more than you, and that is a fact you can take into a conversation with your manager.

The federal government publishes exactly this. The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys employers rather than workers and reports, for every occupation, the wage at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile nationally, plus the quartiles for each state. The tool above places your pay on that curve for the 917 occupations with published wages.

There is no percentile you are supposed to be in. What the percentiles give you is a shape to read your own pay against, and the shape is what matters. Take registered nurses, one of the largest occupations in the country, as an example of how it works nationally.

10th percentile

$68,940

25th percentile

$80,330

Median pay

$97,550

75th percentile

$112,350

Registered Nurse annual wages, BLS OEWS May 2025.

Read it this way. The middle half of the occupation, everyone between the 25th and the 75th percentile, is paid between $80,330 and $112,350. That band is the typical range for the work. Below the 25th percentile usually means early career, a lower paying employer type, or a lower paying part of the country. Above the 75th usually means seniority, a specialism, an expensive metro area, or all three. The 90th percentile, $137,470 in this occupation, is the top of what the survey records rather than a target.

This is also why the question "what percentile is a $100,000 salary" has no general answer. Against registered nurses nationally, $100,000 lands at about the 54th percentile. Against an occupation whose median is $50,980, the same figure would be near the top of the distribution. The number only means something once you attach it to a job.

Often, and it can reverse it. Wages track local prices, so a high number in an expensive state is not always the better deal. Compare the same occupation across two large states: registered nurses in California have a median of $140,270 against $95,970 in Texas.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities, an index of what a fixed basket of goods, services and rent costs in each state relative to the national average. Restating both medians in national-average dollars puts California at $126,689 and Texas at $98,880. The headline gap of $44,300 shrinks to $27,809 once prices are taken into account.

The cost of living toggle does the same to your own figure: it restates what you earn in national-average dollars and ranks that against the national curve for your occupation. It is the honest way to compare an offer in one state with a salary in another.

A percentile below the typical range is evidence, and evidence is only useful if you do something with it. The sequence that works is unglamorous and it is almost always better than leaving quietly.

1. 1

   Write the number down

   Your pay, your occupation, your state, and the percentile it lands on. Copy the summary out of the tool so you have the figures and the source in one place.
2. 2

   Decide what you are asking for

   Name a target. Moving from below the 25th percentile to the median is a defensible ask because the market, not your opinion, sets the destination.
3. 3

   Make the case in a meeting, not an email

   Ask for the conversation, bring the federal figures, and lead with the work you have delivered rather than the gap itself. The data is the context, not the argument.
4. 4

   Put the ask in writing afterwards

   A short follow up that repeats the number and the reasoning gives your manager something to forward to the person who actually approves it.

Three of our other free tools cover the rest of that sequence. The raise request builder scripts the conversation, the salary negotiation email generator writes the follow up, and the pay raise calculator turns the percentage on the table into what it is worth per paycheck.

Being straight about the limits is what makes the rest of it usable. Federal wage data is the best benchmark available for this question, and it still has edges.

• It ranks occupations, not job titles. Standard occupation codes group jobs that employers title very differently. If your role straddles two codes, check both.
• State is not the same as your city. Pay inside a single state varies a lot between its metro areas and its rural counties. The state quartiles cover both.
• It is base wages only. Bonuses, commission, equity, overtime, shift differentials, employer retirement contributions and health coverage are outside these figures, and they can be worth more than the gap you are looking at.
• States report only three percentile points. BLS publishes the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile by state. Below or above that range the tool says which quarter you are in rather than inventing a precise percentile.
• Very high wages are capped in the source data. Values shown as $239,200+ exceed the BLS publication ceiling; exact figures are not published. Those figures are floors, so the tool refuses to rank against them rather than guessing.
• It is a snapshot. The survey vintage is May 2025. In a fast moving field, current offers can run ahead of it.