Every year, the same lists circulate. "Top 10 highest-paying jobs!" with the same five careers recycled across fifty different websites. Most of them are built on outdated data, cherry-picked statistics, or a complete misreading of what the numbers actually mean.
Here is what the federal government actually found.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025 in mid-May 2026, covering wage data for more than 800 occupations across the US economy. This is the most comprehensive wage dataset that exists. Not LinkedIn salary surveys. Not Glassdoor estimates. Federal data, collected directly from employers, covering 9.8 million healthcare workers, 6.4 million construction workers, and every other occupation category in the country.
The data tells a clear story. And there are a few things in it that most of the coverage of this report gets completely wrong.
What the Numbers Actually Say (And What They Do Not)
Before the list: you need to understand how BLS measures wages, because the distinction matters more than most people realize.
The rankings are based on mean annual wages, not median. Mean (average) gets pulled up by the highest earners in any category. Median reflects the midpoint, what the typical worker actually earns. When those two numbers diverge significantly, the mean is misleading about what most workers in that occupation take home.
The most obvious example in this dataset: athletes. The mean annual wage for athletes comes in at $206,180, which puts them third among non-healthcare occupations. The median wage for athletes, what the typical athlete earns, is around $67,000. The top 1% of professional athletes earn enough to make the average look like a comfortable six-figure career. It is not. The average working athlete is doing just fine but nowhere near the headline number.
Keep that distinction in mind as you read the list. Where the mean and median diverge significantly, I'll flag it. That is the data that actually tells you whether this career path delivers on the headline number for real people, not just for the statistical outliers pulling up the average.
The BLS data also excludes overtime and most bonuses. For some occupations, particularly in finance and tech where bonuses can represent 30 to 50 percent of total compensation, the BLS figures understate real earnings substantially.
The 10 Highest-Paying Jobs in the US: May 2025 BLS Data
1. Pediatric Surgeon: $502,050 mean annual wage
The top of the list belongs to medicine, and it is not particularly close. Pediatric surgeons lead all occupations at $502,050 in mean annual wages. That is roughly 7.2 times the average wage across all US occupations ($69,770).
The path to get here is substantial. Undergraduate degree, four years of medical school, five to seven years of surgical residency, then a two-year pediatric surgery fellowship on top of that. You are typically in your mid-thirties before you earn a full attending salary. Total training debt frequently exceeds $300,000 to $400,000 for candidates who do not have family financial support.
The earning power is real and the demand is stable. Pediatric surgery is one of the most AI-resistant occupations that exists. No algorithm is operating on a child's heart. For candidates who can handle the training timeline and the emotional weight of the work, the financial upside is among the highest available anywhere in the US economy.
2. Cardiologist: $454,940 mean annual wage
Cardiologists rank second overall and are the top-paying occupation in 14 individual states. In multiple states, the average annual wage for cardiologists exceeds $600,000, according to the state-level BLS data released alongside the national figures.
Cardiology, like pediatric surgery, requires medical school followed by internal medicine residency (three years) and cardiology fellowship (three additional years). Interventional cardiology, which involves procedures like stent placements and catheter work, commands the highest earnings within the specialty.
Healthcare as a whole employed 9.8 million workers in May 2025 with a mean annual wage of $108,700. Physicians and surgeons dominate the top of that group by a wide margin.
3. Radiologist: $381,530 mean annual wage
Radiology sits third among physician specialties and fifth overall behind the two surgical categories. Radiologists interpret medical imaging, including X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds, to diagnose conditions without necessarily treating patients directly.
This is one of the more controversial entries on the list right now in medical circles. Radiology has been identified as one of the physician specialties most likely to see AI-driven disruption. Automated image analysis tools are getting good at identifying patterns in scans, and the question of how that changes radiologist demand over the next decade is genuinely open. The pay is exceptional. The long-term trajectory of the specialty warrants research before committing to the training pathway.
4. Anesthesiologist: $342,720 mean annual wage (physicians); Nurse Anesthetist: $248,320
Anesthesiologists administer and monitor anesthesia during surgical procedures. The physician anesthesiologist path follows the standard medical school plus residency track (four-year residency specifically in anesthesiology).
Worth flagging separately: nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) earn a mean of $248,320. That is a significant income from an advanced practice nursing pathway that requires a bachelor's in nursing, clinical experience, and a doctoral-level nurse anesthesia program. The debt load and training timeline are substantially shorter than the physician pathway. CRNAs have been the highest-paid non-physician, non-surgeon role in the BLS data for several years running.
5. Obstetrician/Gynecologist: $279,040 mean annual wage
OB/GYNs manage pregnancy, childbirth, and women's reproductive health. The mean is $279,040, and the specialty remains in high demand driven by consistent demographic need.
6. Pathologist: $285,420 mean annual wage
Pathologists diagnose diseases by examining tissue samples, blood, and other specimens. Like radiology, pathology is a physician specialty where AI-assisted analysis tools are advancing, and the specialty's future is being actively debated in medical communities.
7. Psychiatrist: $269,940 mean annual wage
Psychiatry earns a mean of $269,940 and is one of the few physician specialties where demand clearly exceeds supply. The mental health crisis that accelerated during the pandemic has not resolved. Psychiatrists who also have prescribing authority, diagnostic depth, and availability for complex cases are in demand in most US markets.
8. Airline Pilot: $288,650 mean annual wage (top non-healthcare earner)
The highest-earning occupation outside of healthcare. Airline pilots at $288,650 reflect a significant labor market shift. Pilot shortages driven by pandemic-era retirements and slower training pipeline recovery drove substantial pay increases at major carriers between 2022 and 2025. Pay at legacy carriers (Delta, United, American) for senior captains routinely exceeds $300,000 to $400,000 in total compensation including overtime, which the BLS figures exclude.
The training pathway is different from the healthcare careers above. It requires a private pilot license, instrument rating, commercial certificate, and accumulation of flight hours (typically 1,500 hours minimum for airline transport pilot certification). Total cost to reach airline qualification through a traditional route: $80,000 to $150,000, depending on the pathway. Some regional airlines now offer cadet programs that reduce upfront costs significantly in exchange for service commitments.
9. Chief Executive: $269,630 mean annual wage
Chief executives rank second among non-healthcare occupations. The important caveat here: this BLS category covers CEOs across all company sizes, from Fortune 500 to small businesses. The mean is pulled heavily upward by large-company compensation packages.
Total compensation for Fortune 500 CEOs including equity and bonuses runs far higher than the BLS wage data captures. For small and mid-size company executives where the BLS mean is more reflective of actual earnings, $269,630 represents a realistic ceiling for many rather than a floor.
10. Financial Manager: $185,390 mean annual wage
Financial managers, which include CFOs, treasury managers, and related roles, sit in the top 10 for non-healthcare occupations. The BLS figure excludes bonuses, which in financial services can represent a significant portion of total compensation. A financial manager at a major bank or investment firm with a strong performance year may see total compensation substantially above the BLS baseline.
The High-Earning Jobs the List Misses
The BLS data has structural limitations that affect how it represents certain high-paying fields.
Technology: Software engineers, data scientists, machine learning engineers, and similar tech roles appear in the BLS data but not in the top 10 because their mean wages land in the $130,000 to $200,000 range. That is exceptional pay compared to the national average of $69,770. But equity compensation, a standard part of total pay at tech companies, is not captured by BLS wage data at all. A mid-level software engineer at a major tech company earning $180,000 in salary plus $200,000 in annual equity vesting is earning $380,000 in total compensation. The BLS sees the $180,000 only.
Reddit's r/cscareerquestions and r/techjobs threads consistently surface this point: BLS data undercounts tech compensation by a wide margin because of how equity works. For career decisions, looking at total compensation through platforms that capture equity is necessary context.
Hedge Fund and Private Equity: Finance at the highest levels does not pay through salary structures that BLS captures well. A partner at a private equity firm or a portfolio manager at a successful hedge fund earns through carried interest and profit sharing rather than wages. The BLS categories for financial managers and securities sales agents represent a fraction of what top finance earners actually take home.
Dentistry: Oral and maxillofacial surgeons and orthodontists consistently appear near the top of BLS data but were not highlighted in recent coverage of the May 2025 release. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons had a mean wage of $311,460 in May 2024 data. The May 2025 release puts this specialty in the top cluster alongside physician specialties. Dentistry overall, with a dental school pathway rather than medical school, is a frequently overlooked route to physician-level income.
What No One Tells You About These Careers
I have watched enough people make career decisions based on salary lists to know the version of this that actually helps people.
The headline numbers are real. Getting to them is a specific, lengthy, and expensive process. And the financial math of these careers is more complicated than the salary figures alone suggest.
For physician specialties: the training investment is significant. Medical school costs $200,000 to $400,000. Residency pays $60,000 to $80,000 per year for three to seven years. You are not making $400,000 at 27. You are making $70,000 while paying interest on $300,000 in debt, in your late twenties and early thirties, during years when non-medicine peers in tech or finance are already earning six figures and accumulating savings.
The break-even point, where a physician's lifetime earnings catch up to a peer who went directly into a high-paying tech or finance role, is typically in the physician's late thirties to early forties, depending on specialty, location, and debt load. After that point, physician earnings generally pull ahead and stay ahead. But the timeline is real and should be part of any honest career analysis.
For the airline pilot path: the shortage-driven pay increases at major carriers are real and likely to continue as demographic retirement waves continue. The earnings at regional airlines for newly qualified pilots are still modest (starting salaries in the $70,000 to $90,000 range) before accumulating the seniority to move to a major carrier.
For tech: equity creates high upside but also volatility. Stock-based compensation at public companies fluctuates with share price. The engineering teams I have worked with across early and growth-stage companies over two decades include many people who accumulated significant equity during bull markets and watched it correct during downturns. Base salary in tech is robust and reliable. Equity is a multiplier with meaningful variance.
The Fastest-Growing High-Paying Roles for 2026
Pay is one dimension. Trajectory is another. For anyone making career decisions today, the combination of current compensation and projected demand over the next decade is the real metric.
BLS projections show nurse practitioners growing at 40% through 2034, far faster than average, with a median wage around $129,000 to $137,000. The combination of strong current pay, manageable training timeline relative to physician paths, and exceptional demand growth makes this one of the most compelling career paths in the data.
Indeed's 2026 job demand rankings, which weight salary, wage growth, and posting volume together, show cardiac medical techs, nurse practitioners, and physical therapists among the top positions for combination of pay and demand. Healthcare accounts for 72% of total US job growth in the broader market according to Indeed's data, despite representing only 11% of total jobs.
Data scientists at $115,000 median (Indeed data) and AI/ML engineers in the $125,000 to $165,000 range are the non-healthcare roles showing consistent demand growth alongside solid compensation.
The Bottom Line
If you want the highest possible lifetime earnings and can handle an extended training timeline, the physician pathway, particularly surgical specialties and cardiology, delivers compensation with no peer in the broader labor market.
If you want strong compensation with faster time-to-income, tech roles at established or growth-stage companies, nurse anesthesia, and financial management at institutions that pay bonuses offer paths to $200,000 or more without the decade-plus training runway of surgical medicine.
If you want compensation plus demand security, nurse practitioners, data scientists, and cybersecurity roles combine strong current pay with exceptional projected growth over the next decade.
The BLS data is the most honest picture of what the market actually pays. Use it as the baseline. Then layer in equity compensation for tech, total compensation for finance, and realistic training cost and timeline modeling for healthcare. That is how you actually compare these careers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest-paying job in the US according to federal data? Pediatric surgeons top the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 data with a mean annual wage of $502,050. Cardiologists rank second at $454,940. Both figures are from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program released in May 2026 and represent the most comprehensive federal wage data available.
What is the highest-paying job outside of healthcare? According to BLS May 2025 data, airline pilots lead non-healthcare occupations with a mean annual wage of $288,650. Chief executives follow at $269,630. Note that both figures exclude overtime and most bonuses, which are significant parts of total compensation in these roles.
Why do healthcare jobs dominate the highest-paying list? Physician and surgical specialties require the longest, most expensive training pathways of any profession, typically 12 to 15 years of post-secondary education and training. The compensation reflects both the scarcity of qualified practitioners and the specialized skill required. Healthcare also has consistent demand driven by demographics: people will always need medical care.
Is the BLS salary data accurate for tech jobs? BLS data captures base wages but excludes equity compensation, which is a substantial portion of total pay at tech companies. A software engineer earning $175,000 in salary plus $200,000 in annual equity vesting has total compensation the BLS does not fully reflect. For tech salary research, platforms that capture total compensation alongside equity data provide more accurate figures.
What high-paying jobs do not require medical school? Airline pilots (mean $288,650), chief executives ($269,630), financial managers ($185,390), and marketing managers ($175,990) are among the top earners outside healthcare. In tech, senior software engineers and ML engineers regularly exceed $200,000 in total compensation. Nurse anesthetists ($248,320) represent the top non-physician healthcare earner and require an advanced nursing pathway rather than medical school.
How long does it take to reach the highest-paying jobs? For physician specialties: 4 years of medical school, 3 to 7 years of residency, and 1 to 3 years of fellowship in some specialties. Total: 12 to 15 years post-undergraduate. For airline pilots: 3 to 5 years to reach qualification for a regional airline, then additional years building seniority to move to major carrier pay. For tech senior roles: typically 5 to 10 years of career progression, though exceptional performers in strong markets can compress this timeline.
What is the average wage across all US occupations? The BLS May 2025 data shows the average wage across all US occupations at $69,770. Pediatric surgeons at $502,050 earn approximately 7.2 times the national average.
Which states have the highest-paying jobs? Cardiologists are the top-paid occupation in 14 states, with average wages exceeding $600,000 in several of them. Oregon is the only state where a non-healthcare professional (chief executives at $403,380) topped the state rankings, though the BLS noted that some medical specialties lacked sufficient data to be published for that state.
Are the highest-paying jobs worth the training investment? The financial analysis is more nuanced than the headline figures suggest. Physician salaries at the top of the scale are exceptional, but the 12 to 15 year training period involves $200,000 to $400,000 in medical school debt and residency salaries of $60,000 to $80,000 during years when peers in other fields are already building wealth. The lifetime earnings advantage is real, but it typically does not materialize until a physician's late thirties or early forties. For careers with faster time-to-income and strong pay, tech, nursing advanced practice, and finance offer competitive total compensation with shorter training timelines.