Analysis
Findings from the wage data, published when there is something to report rather than on a schedule. Every figure is reproducible from the dataset.
The highest-paying state usually is not the best-paying state
2026-08-12
For 240 of 587 occupations — 40.9% — the state that pays most stops being the leader once you account for what things cost there.
In 379 of 391 occupations, the average earner is not a typical earner
2026-08-12
Mean pay exceeds median pay almost everywhere. How far it exceeds it says something about how the job is paid — commission at one end, pay scales at the other.
The jobs that barely exist outside one state
2026-08-12
Political Scientists in District of Columbia are 123 times more concentrated than the national rate. At the extremes a location quotient stops describing a labour market and starts describing a single city.
Everything here is derived from the published dataset, which is public domain and free to check.