Statistics from the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey

In the OES Estimates sections of the ocouha website (on most of the occupation information pages as well as the OES Estimates by Area and OES Estimates by Industry) are occupational employment and earnings estimates for wage and salary employees for the U.S., states, and metropolitan areas (for the area estimates) and national estimates for various industries (for the industry estimates). These are estimates of the number of workers employed ("employed" means not including unincorporated self-employed workers) and the wages paid to these workers. The wage estimates include the mean (average) wage as well as the earnings distribution for the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentiles. These estimates come from the Occupational Employment Statistics program and are calculated and published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (specifically, the Occupational Profiles, State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Metropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, and the National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates). These estimates are not printed separately in the Occuational Outlook Handbook. The BLS describes the Occupational Employment Statistics program this way:

OES estimates are calculated from data collected from employers (in nearly every industry and in most of the counties in the U.S.) who are asked to report provide information on all workers (both part-time and full-time) who are paid a wage or salary. The survey does not cover the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers. Wages for the OES survey are straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay. Included in the collection of wage data are base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay including commissions and production bonuses, on-call pay, and tips. The following are excluded from the wage data: back pay, jury duty pay, overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, and tuition reimbursements. Employers report the hourly earnings of part-time workers so an equivalent annual wage can be computed.