If you were to ask 10 different people which industries pay the best, you would likely receive 10 entirely different answers. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wages Statistics program, the answer is far less exciting that you'd expect.

Let's start with the basics. The national mean annual wage across all occupations in the U.S. sits at $69,770 as of BLS's may 2025 release. This is the number every figure shown below should be measured against, because "high paying" is relative to the middle.

At the top of the list is management occupations with a mean annual wage of $145,260. This figure includes chief executives who average $269,630, and general and operations managers at $139,940. Management is a wide-ranging category whose range is significant depending on how much of the organization reports to you. Following closely behind are legal occupations at $139,510, largely due to lawyers and judicial workers who earned an average of $180,510. Computer and mathematical occupations averaged $120,080, with software developers at $148,100. Architecture and engineering averages $106,830.

An honorable mention due to its size and range are healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, a category that employs 9.8 million people, averages $108,700. This is well above the national mean and nearly more than any other group tracked. However, pediatric surgeons and cardiologists top out at $502,050 and $454,940, respectively. This places the entire category's annual mean higher even though most healthcare workers - nurses, technicians, and support staff - earn nowhere near these figures.

Noticeably missing from this data is confirmation on what internal reports might suggest. Not everyone in tech is a developer earning six figures or more, and while healthcare pays well in aggregate, the average worker is not a surgeon. The pay scales range significantly. The specific occupation inside each category matters less when looking at pay scale. It is the employer or specific market that drives pay.

This data ultimately serves as a sanity check. If the job post is in a historically well-paying field, but is offering a below-average salary, that gap is worth inquiring about. Compensation data isn't about what you deserve, but provides a glimpse into what the market is paying and what you may be able to demand.