# How to research salary for a job: sources you can trust

> How to research salary for a job using BLS wage data, pay ranges in postings and crowd-sourced sites, then adjust for location and level to set your range.

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- Published by [Jobbie](https://jobbie.bot/) · Updated 2026-10-06 · 8 min read

To research salary for a job, start with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, which publishes wage estimates for about 830 occupations by state and metro area. Narrow that with the pay ranges in current postings for the same title and location, and use crowd-sourced salary sites only as a cross-check. Then adjust for your level and turn what you found into three numbers: a minimum, a target and an opening ask.

## Key takeaways

- Use at least three sources, and give the most weight to figures that come from employers.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data is the most dependable baseline. It groups jobs into broad occupations and trails the market.
- A pay range in a current posting is the freshest evidence of what a specific employer expects to pay.
- Crowd-sourced salary sites are self-reported and unverified. Use them for direction, not precision.
- Compare local figures, not national ones, and match the level of the job by its scope, not its title.

## Where can you find reliable salary data?

| Source | Who supplies the numbers | Best for | Main limit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | A federal survey of employers | A baseline for an occupation in a state or metro area | Broad occupation groups, and figures that lag |
| Pay ranges in job postings | The employer that is hiring | What this employer and its competitors expect to pay now | Ranges can be wide and usually show base pay only |
| Published pay scales | Public employers, such as the federal government | Exact pay by grade and location | Covers only those employers |
| Crowd-sourced salary sites | Individual workers, self-reported | A rough cross-check and hints about a named company | Unverified, with uneven samples |
| People in your field | Peers and mentors | Current context that no table shows | Small sample. Ask for ranges, not personal pay |

No single source is enough. When three of them point to the same band, you can rely on it.

## How do you use BLS wage data?

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, known as OEWS, produces employment and wage estimates every year for about 830 occupations. It covers the nation, each state and about 530 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, though not every area has figures for every occupation. The estimates come from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments.

1. **Find your occupation.** BLS uses the Standard Occupational Classification system, so your job title may not appear word for word. Open the occupation profiles for the latest year and pick the closest match. If two fit, note both.
2. **Choose the area.** Use the metropolitan area tables for the place the job is based. Fall back to the state table if your area has no figure for the occupation.
3. **Read the spread, not only the average.** OEWS gives a mean wage and percentile wages. A percentile is a boundary: the median, or 50th percentile, is the point where half the workers in the occupation earn more and half earn less.
4. **Check what the wage includes.** OEWS wages are straight-time gross pay. They include base rates, commissions, tips, cost-of-living allowances and production bonuses. They leave out overtime, shift differentials, year-end and other non-production bonuses, profit sharing and stock bonuses.
5. **Convert if you need to.** OEWS annual figures assume a full-time, year-round schedule of 2,080 hours.

Know the limits:

- **They trail the market.** The newest estimates have a May 2025 reference date, and each release combines survey panels collected over three years.
- **They do not show who earns what.** The survey gathers no demographic information, so there is no breakdown by experience.
- **They cover employees only.** The self-employed are not surveyed.
- **They can understate total pay** where bonuses or equity are a large share of compensation.

## How do you read the pay range in a job posting?

Several states now require pay ranges in postings. In California, for example, an employer with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale in any job posting. The state defines that as a good-faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay on hire. An applicant there can also request the pay scale, and the employer must provide it on reasonable request.

To turn postings into data:

1. Search for the same title in the same location and collect five to ten current postings that list a range.
2. Record the low and high figure, the employer and any level in the title, such as “senior,” “II” or “lead.”
3. Look at where the ranges overlap. That overlap is the market for the role.

Read ranges with care. They usually describe base pay unless they say otherwise, and a very wide range tells you little until you ask where in it the employer expects to hire.

When a posting has no range, ask.

```Script: asking a recruiter for the pay range
"Before we go further, could you share the pay range for this role? I want to make sure we're in the same place."
```

> **Note:** Pay transparency rules vary by state and city, and this is general information, not legal advice. Check the labor department of the state where the job is located.

## What are employer data and crowd-sourced sites good for?

**Employer data** is anything the employer publishes or tells you. Besides posting ranges, public employers often publish their whole pay structure. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, for example, publishes the federal General Schedule and locality pay tables each year. For a government agency, a public university or a unionized workplace, look for the published scale first.

**Crowd-sourced sites** collect pay figures that workers submit themselves. They come in a few types: general salary databases, employer review sites with a salary section, and industry forums or shared spreadsheets where people post offers. Their strength is detail that official data lacks, such as figures for a named company or the split between base, bonus and equity. Their limits:

- **Nobody verifies the entries.** A figure may be mistyped, outdated or inflated.
- **The sample selects itself.** People who post are not a cross-section of the workforce.
- **Titles are inconsistent.** One company’s “analyst” is another’s “manager.”
- **Base and total pay get mixed** in the same column.
- **Some figures are modeled estimates,** not reports, and the site may not say which.

Use these sites the way you would use reviews. Look at many entries, check the dates and the number of reports, prefer entries that state level and location, and ignore the single highest figure.

## How do you adjust for location?

Pay for the same job differs from one area to the next, so compare local figures.

- **On-site and hybrid jobs.** Use the OEWS metropolitan area table and postings from the same area.
- **Remote jobs.** Ask which location the pay is based on: the company’s, yours or one national band. [Remote jobs](https://jobbie.bot/blog/remote-jobs) explains how location limits work.
- **Comparing two cities.** The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes regional price parities, which express price levels in each state and metro area as a percentage of the national level. They let you compare what a salary buys in one place against another.

Keep the two questions apart. Market pay in the area is your argument to the employer. Cost of living is for your own decision about whether the offer works.

## How do you adjust for level?

Titles are unreliable guides to level, so compare scope.

- **Match the work.** Look at team size, budget, who the role reports to and how much it decides alone.
- **Read one level up and one down.** Postings for the junior and senior versions of the role show where yours sits.
- **Place yourself in the spread.** As a rough guide, people new to an occupation tend to sit toward the lower end of the BLS figures and experienced specialists toward the upper end. BLS does not publish pay by experience, so confirm with postings.

If you are near the start of your career, [how to negotiate salary for an entry-level job](https://jobbie.bot/blog/entry-level-salary-negotiation) covers what is realistic.

## How do you turn research into a range?

```Salary research worksheet
Role and level: [job title, level]
Location or pay basis: [metro area, or the location the pay is based on]

BLS OEWS, [occupation], [area]: median [figure], spread from [low] to [high]
Posting ranges (5 to 10): overlap from [low] to [high]
Published scale or recruiter's range, if any: [low] to [high]
Crowd-sourced cross-check: [range], from [number] reports dated [years]

Minimum (I would decline below this): [figure]
Target (what the market pays at my level): [figure]
Opening ask (above target, still supported by the data): [figure]
```

Your minimum stays private. The target and the opening ask are the range you give when asked for your [salary expectations](https://jobbie.bot/blog/salary-expectations), and the evidence behind them is what you bring to a [salary negotiation](https://jobbie.bot/blog/salary-negotiation). When an offer arrives, [evaluate the whole package](https://jobbie.bot/blog/evaluate-a-job-offer), not base pay alone.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the most reliable source of salary data?

No single source is enough. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics is the most dependable baseline because it comes from a large federal survey of employers. Pay ranges in current postings are the freshest evidence for a specific role. Use both, with crowd-sourced figures as a cross-check.

### How accurate is BLS salary data?

It is built from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments, with pay reported by employers instead of by individuals. Its limits are that occupations are broad, each release combines three years of survey panels, and the wage figures leave out overtime and most bonuses.

### Can you trust salary websites?

Treat them as rough indicators. The figures are submitted by users and usually not verified, the people who post are not a representative sample, and results thin out quickly for a specific company, level and city.

### How do you find the salary for a job that does not list one?

Look up the occupation and metro area in the BLS data, then collect ranges from other employers’ postings for the same title in the same area. Ask the recruiter for the range directly. In California, an applicant can also request the pay scale for the position.

## Sources

- [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics](https://www.bls.gov/oes/): what the program covers, how many occupations and which geographic areas, and the date of the latest estimates.
- [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: OEWS Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm): the definition of wages and what is excluded, percentile wages, the 2,080-hour year, the sample and the limits of the data.
- [California Department of Industrial Relations: California Equal Pay Act and Pay Transparency Law FAQ](https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/california_equal_pay_act.htm): the pay scale requirement for job postings in California and an applicant’s right to request it.
- [U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Salaries & Wages](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/): the published General Schedule and locality pay tables for federal employees.
- [U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area](https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area): what regional price parities measure and how they compare price levels between areas.