MyPassion.ai
Free salary tool · U.S. government data

See where your pay actually sits

Type your job title, state, and current salary. In one step, find out where you sit in the wage distribution for your occupation.

$
Annual, before tax

Wages come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. We measure the occupation, not the person. See all free tools

The honest answer

Am I underpaid? Here is how to find out for sure

Most people asking "am I underpaid?" are working from a rumor, a friend's offer, or a number on a job board that may not reflect their state or their years in the role. The problem is not that pay data does not exist. It is that the good data is buried in government spreadsheets that were never built to answer a personal question.

This tool does the translation for you. You give it your job title, your state, and your current salary. It places you on the US wage distribution for your occupation, drawn from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and tells you in plain language where you stand. You will see the median for your field, the 75th percentile, and the exact size of the gap in dollars. No guessing, no jargon.

Being underpaid is not a character flaw and it is not always obvious. Two people with the same title in the same city can be tens of thousands of dollars apart, and neither of them may know it. The point of a benchmark is to replace the feeling with a figure you can act on.

How to tell if you are underpaid
Step one

Pin down your occupation

Pay tracks the occupation, not the job title on your business card. Match yourself to the closest standard role so you are compared to the right group of people.

Step two

Read the distribution

One average hides everything that matters. Look at the whole spread for your state, from the 10th percentile to the 90th, and find where your salary actually sits.

Step three

Read the gap honestly

Below the median with years of experience is a fair reason to act. Near the top is worth knowing too. The number is a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict on you.

What your percentile actually means

A percentile is a simple idea. If you sit at the 60th percentile, you earn more than roughly 60 out of every 100 people in your occupation and state. The 50th percentile is the median, the true middle of the pack. The 25th and 75th mark the edges of the broad middle, and the 10th and 90th describe the bottom and top of what is commonly paid. Underpayment tends to show up as a salary stuck below the 25th percentile for someone who is well past their first years in the field.

We show the curve rather than a single number because the shape carries the story. A tight, tall curve means most people earn close to the same wage and there is little room to move. A wide, flat curve means the same title pays very differently depending on employer, specialty, and negotiation, which is exactly where knowing your number pays off. Once you know it, the natural follow-up is what a specific raise would change: the pay raise calculator translates any percent or offer into per-paycheck terms. If your role is paid hourly, hours move the annual figure as much as the rate does, and the overtime pay calculator shows what the long weeks are worth. For the premium rate on its own, the time and a half calculator converts any wage in one step. Pay is only half the package: the PTO accrual calculator puts a number on the time off, and the commute cost calculator deducts what getting there costs.

Is $60,000 a good salary?

It depends on the job, and there is a straight way to show that rather than an opinion. We counted every occupation the BLS tracks and asked how many pay a median below each figure. At $50,000 you out-earn the median worker in 272 of 825 occupations, covering 50.0% of the 155.4 million jobs in the dataset. At $100,000 it is 687 occupations and 85.0%.

This is a count, not a model. Nobody can honestly quote you one national percentile, because the BLS publishes percentiles per occupation rather than a single distribution for everybody, and stitching them together means inventing the ends it declined to publish. Counting medians needs no such invention.

Annual salaryOccupations paying less at the medianShare of tracked jobs
$30,0000 of 8250.0%
$40,00098 of 82527.2%
$50,000272 of 82550.0%
$60,000396 of 82558.3%
$70,000512 of 82569.8%
$80,000605 of 82578.0%
$100,000687 of 82585.0%
$125,000755 of 82593.6%
$150,000789 of 82597.1%
$200,000801 of 82599.2%

What percentile is my salary in my occupation?

This is the question that actually has an answer, and it is the one the calculator above settles. The same salary sits in completely different places depending on the work: $60,000 is near the top of the range for a cashier and below the bottom of it for a registered nurse. A national figure would hide exactly the thing you need to know.

Here are the 12 occupations employing the most people in the country, with the pay published at each point in their distribution. Find yours, or something near it, and read across.

Occupation10th25thMedian75th90th
Home Health and Personal Care Aides$27,040$31,920$35,800$39,470$45,040
Retail Salespersons$27,210$29,900$35,410$38,670$47,890
Fast Food and Counter Workers$22,840$27,700$31,200$36,070$42,650
General and Operations Managers$50,090$72,320$105,770$167,280$239,200+
Registered Nurses$68,940$80,330$97,550$112,350$137,470
Cashiers$24,530$28,720$32,880$36,330$40,410
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand$31,270$36,090$40,240$46,920$55,140
Stockers and Order Fillers$30,110$34,450$37,330$44,650$49,260
Customer Service Representatives$31,750$36,870$44,770$51,780$63,590
Office Clerks, General$30,310$36,350$45,010$54,300$64,680
Waiters and Waitresses$18,100$27,750$35,230$47,110$64,720
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners$28,640$32,240$36,840$44,060$50,270

Why we use government wage data

The wages here come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the same source cited by economists and national newsrooms. It covers wage and salary workers across the country and reports pay at set points in the distribution for each occupation and state. It has hard limits, which we state plainly on every result: it excludes the self-employed, it reports base wages rather than total compensation, and the very top of the range is censored. We would rather show you an honest number with its edges marked than a confident number you cannot trust.

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Frequently asked questions

Straight answers to what people ask before they trust a pay number.

You are likely underpaid if your salary sits well below the median for your occupation and state once you account for your experience and hours. This tool answers the question with data instead of a gut feeling: type your title, state, and pay, and see exactly where you sit in the US wage distribution.

Compare your pay to the 10th, 50th (median), and 90th percentiles for your exact occupation in your state. If you have several years of experience and you still sit below the median, that is a signal worth looking into. Sitting below the 25th percentile usually means there is room to negotiate or move.

There is no single right answer, but the median (50th percentile) is a fair baseline for a solid mid-career worker. The 75th percentile is a strong position for your field. Well below the 25th is where most underpayment shows up.

A tool that places your pay inside the published wage distribution for your job rather than against a national average. This one uses the US Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS release, which reports the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile for 825 occupations nationally and by state, and interpolates your figure between the two published points either side of it.

Only answerable inside an occupation, which is why the calculator asks for your job title first. The same $60,000 is near the top of the range for a cashier and below the bottom of it for a registered nurse. Anyone quoting you a single national salary percentile is hiding the variable that matters.

Compared against every occupation the BLS tracks, $60,000 beats the median in a clear majority of them. At $50,000 you out-earn the median worker in 272 of 825 occupations, covering 50.0% of tracked jobs; at $100,000 it is 85.0%. But "good" depends on the job you actually do, and the honest version of the question is whether it is good for your occupation in your state.

It is above the median in 687 of 825 tracked occupations, which is 85.0% of employment in the dataset. In several well-paid fields it is entry level, and in most of the country it is not. Put your own occupation in above and the number stops being a general question.

Three signals worth checking together. Your pay sits below the 25th percentile for your occupation and state despite several years in the role. New hires arrive on packages close to or above yours. And your responsibilities have grown without the pay following. The first is the one you can settle with data in a minute, and it is the one that carries weight in a conversation.

Every number comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 reference period. It is the same government dataset economists and journalists cite, not a self-reported survey.

No. BLS wage figures are base wages and do not include most bonuses, stock, or irregular overtime. If a large share of your pay is variable, treat this benchmark as a floor rather than the full picture.

Two honest paths. Make the case for a raise in your current role using this benchmark as evidence, or explore whether a better-fitting career could pay more and suit you better. The under-10-minute career quiz is a good place to start the second one.

Your pay reflects your occupation, not your ceiling. Knowing the number is the first honest step.

Take the free career quiz now

For information and inspiration only. This tool is not financial, tax, legal, or career advice, and MyPassion.AI accepts no liability for decisions made using it. Every figure and template is an estimate that can differ from your circumstances, so confirm anything important with a qualified professional such as an accountant or career advisor before you act. Use of this tool and its content is subject to our Terms of Service.