Work & income · United States
The pay ladder in United States
Managers earn $10,342 a month and agriculture and fishing earn $3,565 — 2.9× from the top of the ladder to the bottom.
Mean gross monthly earnings in PPP dollars, so the figures say what the money buys locally rather than what it converts to. 9 of the ten ISCO-08 occupation groups are published for United States; latest year 2025.
| Occupation group | Monthly | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managers | $10,342 | 28 % | |
| Professionals | $8,638 | 33 % | |
| Technicians | $6,509 | 34 % | |
| Craft and trades | $5,382 | 38 % | |
| Machine operators | $4,736 | 33 % | |
| Clerical support | $4,487 | 23 % | |
| Service and sales | $3,699 | 39 % | |
| Elementary occupations | $3,623 | 27 % | |
| Agriculture and fishing | $3,565 | 35 % |
How steep is United States?
The distance from the best-paid group to the worst-paid is 2.9×, which makes United States steeper than 30 of the 99 countries with a full ladder and flatter than 68. That ratio is the part a national average cannot tell you: two countries can share an average wage and have entirely different ladders beneath it.
What is unusual here
Craft and trades sit 2 places higher up United States's ladder than they do in most countries, at $5,382 a month. Compared against where the same group lands across all 99 ladders — not against an assumption about which work ought to pay well.
Where the gap between men and women is widest
In United States it is widest among service and sales at 39 % — men $4,734 against women $2,909 — and narrowest among clerical support at 23 %. The gap is measured within each occupation group, so it is not explained away by men and women doing different kinds of work.
What these groups are, and are not
These are the ISCO-08 major groups, the finest breakdown published across countries. “Professionals” covers doctors, engineers and teachers together; “elementary occupations” covers cleaning, portering and labouring. There is no figure here for an individual job title, and we would rather say so than estimate one.
Ladders to compare it with
Source: ILO, mean nominal monthly earnings of employees by occupation (EAR_EMTA). Mean gross monthly earnings, PPP international dollars, both sexes. ISCO-08 major groups (one digit — the deepest ILO publishes). Latest available year per group; snapshot taken 2026-08-14.