How we calculate

The main figure is the median gross yearly salary: half of the people in that job earn more and half earn less. It is the figure official statistics publish and the best picture of normal pay, because the highest salaries do not inflate it.

United States: official figure by job, state and metro area from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey (May 2025). Its 830 jobs are mapped to the international list with the official crosswalk.

Other countries: the International Labour Organization publishes the median pay of each major occupation group (managers, professionals, technicians...). For each job we estimate its pay from its group in that country and how that job relates to its group in countries with detailed data, softened because pay is more spread out in the United States than elsewhere. Those figures are marked as estimates.

Currencies: every figure is shown in the local currency and in euros or dollars at the European Central Bank rate of the day. The cost of living adjustment uses ILO purchasing power parities.

We replace estimates with official figures as we add each country's statistics.