Researching Salaries: Occupation and Experience Level

For anyone just out of college, or for those considering a new career, salaries play a huge role in deciding what type of occupation to pursue. Sure, we'd all love to follow our dreams and get paid for doing it, but most people choose a career based on more practical considerations. Like how much you'll need to earn in order to pay off that mortgage. No matter what type of career you choose, chances are that hard work and patience will eventually pay off. You'll find evidence of this by doing a salary search based on years of experience. The chart above shows that, even in this day and age, with many people changing career paths every few years, salaries tend to increase steadily over time. According to the chart above, when first starting a career, salaries will only increase slowly within the first few years. However, after the five-year mark, median salaries jump fairly significantly about every 10 years.

This salary data is based on PayScale's career salary survey for all occupations within the United States. In that sense, the chart above is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to doing a salary search for jobs in the U.S.; the chart provides a general overview of how experience can impact salary. Because these are median figures, many people will earn more or less depending on various factors, including location, qualifications and industry.

To expand our occupational salary search and see how employment setting affects salaries, we can take a look at the chart on Salaries by Employer Type. This chart shows that hospital and federal government employees tend to earn higher salaries than those working in non-profit organizations, schools and other settings. Location is also a key factor when it comes to salary; do a Salary Search by City and you will see that New York and Washington are in first and second place for high median salary. Search for Salaries by State, however, and you'll find that California is in the top spot with New York falling in second place. For a quick salary search that compares a wide variety of careers, view the report on Salaries by Occupation. You'll see how salaries differ for some of the most popular occupations, including nurses, lawyers, software engineers and more.

Occupation Salary Search

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