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Reading salary data without fooling yourself

A published pay figure is an answer to a specific question. Most disappointment comes from reading it as an answer to a different one.

1. Median and mean answer different questions

The median is the midpoint: half of people in the occupation earn more, half earn less. The mean is the total pay divided by the number of people. In occupations where a small number of people earn a great deal (consulting, senior finance, surgery), the mean is pulled upward and describes almost nobody. The median resists that pull, which is why official occupational statistics usually lead with it. When a figure is quoted without saying which it is, assume nothing.

2. National figures hide the place you live

A national median averages across every metropolitan area, every rural county and every cost-of-living level in the country. Two people in the same occupation, with the same experience, can sit 30% either side of it purely because of geography. The national figure is a good sanity check and a poor negotiating position. Treat it as the question “is this offer in the right universe?” rather than “is this offer fair here?”

3. Every figure has a date

Pay data is collected on a schedule and published later. The figures in our starter database are May 2025 national medians, retrieved September 27, 2026. That means they describe a labour market from a specific month, not this morning. In periods of rapid wage change, a figure a year old can be meaningfully stale. Always write down the measurement period next to the number. If a source will not tell you when it was measured, do not use it.

4. Salary is not compensation

Gross annual salary excludes employer pension contributions, health insurance, paid leave, shift differentials, overtime, bonuses and the cost of licensure or equipment you must fund yourself. Two offers $6,000 apart on base pay can invert once those are counted. When you compare, compare on the same basis, and be explicit with yourself about what you have left out.

Worked example: registered nurses have a $97,550 national median for May 2025. An offer of $85,000 is below that median by $12,550, roughly -12.9%. Whether that is a bad offer depends on the region, the shift pattern and the benefits, none of which the median knows about.

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Figures cited come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm. See Sources & methods.