about this data

Where the pay numbers come from.

The typical-pay range you see in the calculator is an estimate for your matched occupation in your area, built from public occupational and labor-market data, including data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program and live job-posting signals.

Occupation matching uses the O*NET taxonomy. We always show you which occupation your role matched, and you can correct it, because a range for the wrong job is worse than no range at all.

The rules we hold ourselves to

  • 01If the data for your role and area is thin, you see no number. We say so plainly instead of widening an estimate until it looks confident.
  • 02Ranges are base-pay figures. They can understate total compensation, especially where bonuses or equity are common, and we label them that way.
  • 03We never call you underpaid unless your stated pay sits below a conservative bound of the range, and even then with the base-pay caveat attached.
  • 04We never recommend a role or a move our data does not actually support.
  • 05Your freedom-date math never uses market data. It is arithmetic on the numbers you typed, so it is always yours and always true.

Attribution

This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Ascenza is not endorsed by or affiliated with USDOL/ETA.

Wage statistics include data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does not endorse this site.


Questions about a specific range? Re-run it with a corrected occupation or write to us; the address is in the footer of every plan email.