The pilot ground instructor other instructors learn from
$108,000estimated top of the range · middle $55,000 / yr
AI is transforming this role
Pilot Ground Instructors in the United States earn a median of $55,000 a year. Pay starts near $35,000. The top of the range is estimated at $108,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this exact title, so this figure is derived from the closest occupation it does track and is labelled an estimate.
Source: PayCrunch estimate. Last checked 9 September 2026.
Entry level
$35,000
Top-end estimate
$108,000
Education
FAA Ground Instructor certificate
Wages — PayCrunch estimate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for Pilot Ground Instructor; figures are derived from the closest occupation it does track and are labelled as estimates. AI-impact rating is PayCrunch's editorial assessment. Updated September 2026.
🆕 New & Trending AI Tools for Pilot Ground InstructorReviewed September 2026
We track new AI-tool launches every week and refresh this list — here’s what’s gaining traction for Pilot Ground Instructor work right now.
MagicSchool AINEWFree / $8.33 mo
All-in-one teacher toolkit with 80+ tools for planning, IEPs, and communication.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: generate lesson plans, rubrics, and parent messages in minutes
Brisk TeachingNEWFree / school pricing
AI assistant that works right inside Google Docs, Slides, and the browser.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: give feedback, differentiate readings, and build lessons in the tools you already use
CoGraderNEWFree / $19 mo
AI grading tool for writing assignments with rubric-based feedback.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: grade a class set of essays in a fraction of the time, with consistent feedback
NotebookLMNEWFree / $7.99 mo
Google tool that answers questions grounded only in the documents you give it — with citations.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: load your own manuals, policies, or PDFs and ask questions that stay accurate to the source
KhanmigoFree for teachers
Khan Academy's AI tutor and lesson-planning assistant.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: plan standards-aligned lessons and give students a safe AI tutor
CuripodFree / $7.50 mo
Generates interactive, slide-based lessons from a topic or standard.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: turn a topic into an interactive lesson students respond to live
DiffitFree / paid
Adapts any text or topic to the right reading level with questions.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: level a reading for every student and auto-build comprehension questions
ChatGPTFree / $20 mo
The most-used AI assistant — writing, analysis, research, and images from a plain-language chat.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: draft emails and documents, summarize long files, and get instant answers to on-the-job questions
ClaudeFree / $20 mo
AI assistant known for careful writing, long-document analysis, and coding.
How a Pilot Ground Instructor uses it: analyze big reports or spreadsheets and turn messy notes into clean, finished writing
A pilot ground instructor teaches in a classroom. The students may be new to flying, or they may already leave the airport with an instructor in the other seat, but your time with them stays on the ground. You work a whiteboard, a screen, a model, and a room that has to understand weather, rules, navigation, and how an aircraft is put together before anyone treats the lesson as finished. The wage story on this career is that classroom. It is separate from the pay of the person who flies the airplane.
A classroom that does not taxi
Ground school is a course, not a chat in the hallway between flights. You open with what the session has to leave in the student's head, you teach it in an order the school already chose, and you stop when the student can explain it back. Some days the topic is weather and how a pilot decides the flight still makes sense. Some days it is charts, airspace, or the systems a pilot is expected to talk about with confidence. You are not inventing a private syllabus in the margin. The school, the college, or the airline training department owns the course. You own the room.
The skill is explanation. A student who nods is not the same as a student who can brief the material the next morning. You watch for the quiet person, you invite a retelling, and you repair the gap before it becomes a habit. You also keep the boundary of the job. When a student wants a story about how to fly a particular maneuver, you send that want to the flight instructor and the aircraft. Your credibility comes from knowing the line. Ground instructors who drift into cockpit coaching without a flight lesson on the schedule confuse the student and the school.
A good day has a plan, a room that stayed with you, and notes the chief instructor can read. A bad day has a lecture you enjoyed and a class that cannot use any of it. Schools notice the difference at the next stage check, even when they never sit in the back of your room. Write down who struggled and what you will revisit. That record is how a ground school stays honest when several instructors share the same students.
Teaching knowledge, apart from cockpit pay
People mix this job with flight instruction because both happen at a flight school and both use the word instructor. The days are different. A flight instructor's pay is tied to aircraft time, to a schedule that weather can erase, and to the cockpit. A ground instructor's pay is tied to classes, to curriculum, and to students who show up in a room. Some people hold both kinds of work. If you do, keep the pay conversations separate. A wage built for the classroom should be judged as classroom pay. Borrowing a pilot's salary to describe a ground-school seat will make every offer look wrong.
The classroom job still asks for aviation judgment. You have to know the material well enough to hear a wrong idea early. You have to know which points the school treats as essential and which points are color. You have to be calm when a student is embarrassed. None of that requires you to pretend the job is flying. Hiring managers who want a ground instructor are hiring a teacher with an aviation certificate. Lead with teaching. Mention flight experience only when it truly changed how you explain a topic, and do not let it become the whole interview.
Classroom wages, kept off the flight line
These estimates describe ground school. They differ from any cockpit wage series. Do not paste a pilot salary into a ground-instructor offer and call it the same job.
What the FAA ground-instructor certificate proves
The usual credential is an FAA ground-instructor certificate. The Federal Aviation Administration grants it. It proves you may teach aviation knowledge on the ground within the scope of the certificate you hold. It does not, by itself, make you a flight instructor, and it does not put you in command of an aircraft. Schools ask for it because their classroom has to be taught by someone the regulator recognizes. A rich flying resume without that certificate is a different application.
People prepare by learning the knowledge the certificate covers and by completing the FAA's own process for it. Study with a course the school respects, with an instructor who already teaches ground school, or with the materials the FAA points applicants toward. This description stops there on purpose. The order of any test, the way a score is built, and any time requirement are the FAA's process, not a script to memorize from a career note. What you need for hiring is the certificate in hand, plus evidence you can teach a room. A certificate you cannot explain in front of students is a card, not a job.
Keep the certificate current in the way the FAA requires, and keep your teaching current in the way the school requires. Regulations and charts change. A ground instructor who last opened the course binder years ago will teach a map the students are no longer using. Ask the chief instructor how the school updates lessons. Offer to revise a unit you know has drifted. That offer is more persuasive than a claim that you "know the material cold" from an older life in aviation.
Schools, colleges, and airline classrooms
Flight schools hire ground instructors to run the knowledge courses that sit beside flight lessons. A small school may want one person who can teach every ground unit and also help at the desk. A larger academy may split basic courses from later ones and want you in a single lane until you know it deeply. Colleges with aviation programs hire instructors onto a faculty schedule, with office hours and a syllabus that outlives one class of students. Airline training organizations hire classroom instructors for new-hire and recurrent ground school, often with a curriculum written far above the local airport.
The interview should sound like teaching. Be ready to explain one topic to the person across the table as if they were a student who is smart and new. Choose something you can finish cleanly: how you would open a weather session, how you would check that the room followed you, how you would handle a student who memorized words and missed the point. Ask how large the classes are, who writes the lessons, and how the school tells a ground instructor that a unit failed. Ask whether the seat is full-time, a pile of classes, or an add-on to another job. Those are different incomes even when the title matches.
Watch how the school treats the boundary between ground school and the aircraft. A healthy program lets the classroom finish its work before a student is asked to talk about the same idea in the air. A rushed program treats ground school as a box to tick and then wonders why briefings fall apart. If you are the instructor, your leverage is the lesson plan and the retelling, not a promise that you can fix a weak course with personality. Ask to see last term's outline. A school that cannot find it is asking you to invent the course while you teach it, and the pay should reflect that extra design work or the design work should be given to someone whose job it is.
Bring the certificate, a short record of courses you have taught or assisted, and one example of a lesson you improved. If you have never taught, say so and ask for an assistant seat. Chief instructors trust that more than a borrowed story about running a program. References from someone who watched you teach are stronger than a list of ratings. If you also fly, say how the school would split the two schedules so a flight delay does not cancel the class. A ground school that collapses every time the weather is good is not a ground school.
From a shared lesson to a course you own
New instructors teach units someone else designed, with a lead sitting close enough to hear the room. The next step is a course you can run without that shadow: you know the sequence, you know where students usually slip, and the chief instructor stops rewriting your week. After that, some people become the lead for ground school. They set the order of units, they coach newer instructors, and they are the person the flight side calls when students arrive unprepared. The pay should move when the responsibility moves. Teaching a full course at a helper's rate is how instructors get stuck.
A further step is curriculum itself: writing and revising the lessons, aligning them with what the flight instructors actually see, and training the people who will deliver them. That role is less performance and more design. It suits instructors who notice patterns across classes rather than only the class in front of them. Another path stays in the room on purpose, because a great teacher of a hard unit is worth more than a reluctant manager. Say which path you want before someone assigns you the one that merely fills a hole.
Some ground instructors later move into flight instruction, dispatch-related teaching, or a training department at a carrier. Those are new applications, not automatic promotions. Each one has its own credential and its own wage logic. If you make the move, renegotiate from the new job's duties. Do not carry a classroom estimate into a flying contract, and do not carry a flying contract back into the classroom as if the numbers were interchangeable. The students can share a building. The pay should not be blurred to match the building.
Three estimates, because no separate series exists
PayCrunch estimates these figures because the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this exact title. They are not a published wage table for people who fly, and they should not be read as one. Entry is $35,000. The median estimate is $55,000. The distance between those two is $20,000. The estimated top is $108,000. From the median estimate up to that top is $53,000. No state is attached to any of these dollars. A local median is not hiding inside them.
Use the shape of the estimate as a check, not as a contract the school owes you. $35,000 is the entry neighborhood, coherent for a new classroom instructor still teaching from someone else's notes. $55,000 is the middle, a reasonable place to test an offer once you run a course and the school trusts the result. $108,000 is the estimated top. It fits a lead role you can describe: a ground-school program, a curriculum seat, or a training-department job with real scope. Quoting the top as the going rate for a first class is how offers fall apart.
Put the offer next to the classroom estimate
Convert the offer to a year before you compare. Schools talk in class rates, academic terms, and full-time salaries, and a busy month can disguise a thin year. If the yearly number sits near $35,000 and you already own a course, name the $20,000 between entry and the median estimate of $55,000. Ask which duties the school is still treating as entry. If the offer sits near $55,000, ask what lead duty, curriculum work, or a larger program does to the number, and whether that duty is actually on the table.
Hold $108,000 as the estimated top only. The $53,000 between the median and that top is the spread for responsibility you can point to, not a mood. Benefits, a short contract, summer gaps, and whether classes disappear when flight demand drops all change the meaning of the base. Put them in the same conversation. Then match the offer to $35,000, $55,000, or $108,000. Leave geography out. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this title, so these PayCrunch estimates do not support a state comparison, and they do not support borrowing a cockpit wage to win the argument.
The top of Pilot Ground Instructor pay — and how to get there with AI
$108,000top-end estimate for Pilot Ground Instructor
PayCrunch estimate - derived from the closest occupation BLS tracks. This figure is PayCrunch’s estimate, not a Bureau of Labor Statistics published wage for this exact title.
$35,000entry$55,000middle$108,000top end
Teaching a private pilot ground school is priced near the bottom of this range; the top of it belongs to instructors who deliver type-specific and recurrent training for operators whose training is regulated and audited.
Ground instruction at a flight school is paid by the hour and there is always someone willing to do it for less. The training that pays is delivered inside an approved programme, whether that is an airline, a regional operator or a dedicated training centre, where an instructor teaches aircraft systems, procedures and crew coordination to people who must pass a check. Those organisations are perpetually short of instructors who both know the aeroplane and can teach it, and they are even shorter of instructors who can absorb a new training device or a revised syllabus quickly and then bring the rest of the instructor cadre up on it. That last person is the one who ends up standardising the programme.
Your playbook, by where you are now
Just startingBuild the certificates and the classroom skill
Hold the ground instructor certificates through the instrument level, since the advanced ratings are what let you teach the material that pays.
Learn the fundamentals of instructing as a working craft, meaning lesson structure and how you know a student actually understood.
Teach knowledge test preparation until your pass rates speak for themselves, and track those rates yourself.
Build your own lesson materials rather than reading someone else's slides, and use Claude to turn your outlines into clean handouts you then verify against the regulation.
Get instrument and multi-engine experience if you fly, because credibility in this classroom comes from having done the thing.
What proves it: Advanced ground instructor certificates and a documented student pass rate.
Realistic span: your first two years
A few years inMove inside an approved programme
Get hired into a training centre or an airline training department, where instruction is a career rather than an hourly gig.
Learn one aircraft type thoroughly at systems level, well enough to answer the question the manual does not address.
Get qualified to instruct in the training devices, since simulator and device instruction is where the hours and the pay concentrate.
Take the crew coordination and human factors side seriously, because that is the part of recurrent training people remember.
Learn what an audit of the training programme looks for, and keep your records so they would survive one.
What proves it: A type-specific instructor qualification inside an approved training programme.
Realistic span: years three through six
ExperiencedOwn the courseware and the cadre
Take responsibility for a syllabus or a courseware revision, because the person who writes the training controls how it is delivered.
Become the instructor who brings a new device or revised programme online and trains the other instructors on it.
Move toward standardisation, lead instructor or check airman roles, where the pay reflects responsibility for the whole cadre.
Track training outcomes and failure points across classes and use them to argue for syllabus changes with evidence.
Consider contract instruction for operators bringing a new type into service, which pays well and travels.
What proves it: Courseware you authored and instructors you standardised.
Realistic span: from year seven
The next 90 days
Pick the subject your students consistently struggle with and rebuild that lesson from scratch in the next ninety days. Most instructors know what it is, whether it is holding entries, weather charts, engine limitations or a systems schematic that never quite lands. Rewrite it around what the student has to be able to do at the end, build the practice into the lesson rather than the lecture, and then measure whether the failure rate on that topic moves. Bring the result and the new lesson to your training manager. Nobody in a training department is short of instructors willing to teach the syllabus as written; they are short of pilot ground instructors who can show a syllabus problem and hand over the fix.
Wage figures: PayCrunch estimate. The playbook is PayCrunch editorial guidance, not a guarantee of pay or placement.
Every figure is the national median from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS) shown on that role’s own page.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Open ChatGPT or Claude first and use it to build teaching material fast: ACS-aligned lesson plans, practice questions, analogies for hard concepts, and study guides tailored to each student's weak areas. Turning hours of prep into minutes is what lets you teach more students well, the core of earning above the median.
For aviation-specific teaching, use ForeFlight to demonstrate real weather, charts, and flight planning, and a course platform like Kajabi or Teachable when you're ready to scale online. Always verify every regulation and standard against the current FAR/AIM and ACS, free at faa.gov.
The one rule, forever: Aviation knowledge is life-critical and heavily regulated, and AI hallucinates regulations. Never teach or endorse based on an AI answer about a FAR, an ACS standard, weather minimums, or a performance number without verifying it against the current FAR/AIM, the applicable ACS, and official FAA sources. Your instructor certificate and your students' safety ride on accuracy, so AI drafts and explains, but you confirm every regulatory fact and every endorsement.
The plays — exact steps, exact prompts
Do these in order. Each one is copy-paste ready. You do not need to know anything about AI going in.
1
Generate ACS-aligned lessons, quizzes, and study guides
Why this pays: The instructor who prepares great material fast can teach more students to a passing standard, and high pass rates drive the referrals and volume that lift income. AI turns curriculum prep from hours into minutes, multiplying how many students you serve well.
ChatGPTClaudeFAA ACS
1
Build lesson plans and quizzes mapped to the FAA Airman Certification Standards.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a curriculum designer for FAA [Private Pilot] ground school. Create a lesson plan for [weather theory, METARs and TAFs] aligned to the current Airman Certification Standards: learning objectives, a clear teaching outline with real-world examples, 5 common student misconceptions to address, and a 15-question quiz (mixed difficulty) with an answer key and explanations. Note where I must verify facts against the current FAR/AIM and ACS.
Always verify every regulation, weather minimum, and ACS reference against official FAA sources before teaching, because AI can state a reg wrong with total confidence.
2
Have AI generate targeted question banks for the FAA knowledge test by subject area, so students drill their weak spots efficiently.
3
Build reusable lesson libraries for each certificate (Private, Instrument, Commercial) so your prep compounds and every new student costs you less time.
What you'll haveA full, ACS-aligned teaching library produced fast, the capacity to teach more students to high pass rates, driving volume and income toward $80,000.
2
Tutor students to high pass rates with personalized AI prep
Why this pays: Your reputation, and your referrals, ride on students passing their knowledge and oral exams. AI lets you diagnose each student's weak areas and generate targeted practice, raising pass rates and the word-of-mouth that fills your roster at premium rates.
ChatGPTClaudeFAA ACS
1
Turn a student's weak areas into a focused study plan and drills.
Copy-paste this prompt
One of my [instrument-rating] students is weak on [holding pattern entries and approach chart interpretation]. Build a targeted 2-week study plan: a plain-English explanation of each concept, a step-by-step method, 10 practice scenarios with worked answers, and a short readiness quiz. Flag anything I should double-check against the current AIM and Instrument ACS.
Verify all procedures and standards against current official sources. Use AI to personalize practice, not to define the regulation.
2
Use AI to run mock oral exams by feeding it ACS areas and having it generate examiner-style questions you drill with the student so they walk in confident.
3
Track which topics trip students up and have AI refine your materials, continuously improving pass rates and reputation.
What you'll haveHigher knowledge-test and checkride pass rates and the referral reputation that keeps your roster full at premium rates, the demand behind pay at the top of the range.
3
Explain hard concepts with AI-built analogies and demos
Why this pays: Students pay for and refer instructors who make hard things click. AI helps you generate the analogies, examples, and demonstrations that turn confusing topics into aha moments, the teaching quality that lets you charge premium rates and stand out.
ChatGPTForeFlightClaude
1
Get multiple ways to explain any tough topic on demand.
Copy-paste this prompt
I'm teaching [how a constant-speed propeller works, or density altitude, or the region of reverse command] to a [private pilot] student who isn't getting it. Give me three different explanations at increasing depth, two real-world analogies, a simple whiteboard diagram I can draw, and one common misconception to correct. Keep it accurate to how it actually works on the aircraft.
Confirm technical accuracy, especially performance numbers and system behavior, against the POH/AFM and FAA handbooks before teaching.
2
Use ForeFlight in lessons to show live weather, sectional charts, airspace, and flight planning so abstract concepts become concrete.
3
Build a personal library of your best explanations and diagrams so your teaching gets sharper and faster every term.
What you'll haveConcepts that click and students who refer you, the reputation for great teaching that commands premium rates.
4
Scale into an online ground school
Why this pays: One-on-one ground instruction caps your income at your available hours. Packaging your teaching into an online course or running group ground school reaches many students at once, the leap that takes a ground instructor from the median toward $80,000 and beyond.
KajabiDescriptChatGPT
1
Turn your best lessons into a structured self-paced course.
Copy-paste this prompt
Help me turn my [Private Pilot] ground instruction into an online course. Propose a full module outline covering every ACS knowledge area in a logical learning order, what to include as video vs reading vs quiz for each, where to add practice knowledge-test questions, and a pricing and packaging strategy (self-paced vs cohort vs bundled with checkride prep). Suggest a course name and the key selling point vs existing ground schools.
Your course still must be accurate and current, so verify all regulatory content and update it when the FARs or ACS change.
2
Record lessons and use Descript to edit them cleanly and add captions, then build the course in Kajabi or Teachable.
3
Use AI to write the sales page, student emails, and marketing content so the course actually sells and fills.
What you'll haveIncome that scales past your calendar, a course or group ground school reaching many students at once, the path beyond the median toward $80,000.
5
Market to fill your roster
Why this pays: Whether you teach locally or online, a full roster is the difference between the median and the top. AI-built content aimed at student pilots keeps a steady stream of learners coming to you instead of a competitor.
ChatGPTCanvaYouTube
1
Create a content stream that attracts student pilots.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a marketing strategist for a pilot ground instructor. Give me a month of content ideas aimed at student pilots and people considering flight training in [area or online]: 12 short-form video topics that answer common student-pilot questions, 4 blog or post topics with aviation SEO keywords, and a lead magnet idea (like a free FAA knowledge-test study checklist) to capture emails. Include a hook for each.
Keep all aviation content accurate and current, because a wrong reg in your marketing costs credibility. Verify before you publish.
2
Use short videos answering real student questions (posted to YouTube and Instagram) as both teaching and marketing, and AI to repurpose each into posts and emails.
What you'll haveA steady flow of students to your instruction or course, the full roster that sustains income at the top of the range.
Your 12-month sequence to the top of the range
How the plays above stack into a path from median pay toward the $80,000 tier.
Month 1
Start using ChatGPT and Claude to build ACS-aligned lesson plans and quizzes, verifying every regulation against the FAR/AIM and ACS.
Months 2-3
Add personalized AI study plans and mock orals for each student, and track and lift your pass rates.
Months 3-6
Build a reusable lesson and question library across certificates, and begin recording your best lessons.
Months 6-12
Package an online or group ground school and market it with AI-built content, scaling income past the top of hourly pay toward $80,000.
Gear for this job
As an Amazon Associate, PayCrunch earns from qualifying purchases. Links to books and tools are for the job on this page; we only recommend what we’d use in the work.
Same live ASA FAR/AIM 2026 already on airline-pilot / air-traffic-controller / cargo-pilot. This page’s one-rule and Month 1 sequence verify every regulation against the current FAR/AIM and ACS. Official FAA PDFs are free at faa.gov; this is the printed ground-study copy. Ground study only — not the C16 PHAK (that is pilot) and not Part 107 (that is drone-pilot).
Next steps for a Pilot Ground Instructor
Some links below are affiliate or partner links. PayCrunch may earn a commission if you enroll or subscribe through them, at no extra cost to you. Wage figures on this page still come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not from these programs.
Pilot Ground Instructor work is specific enough that a stamped 'check out these courses' block would be noise.
National median pay printed on this page is $55,000; the programs below are the usual levers people use to move off that middle.
A a Pilot Ground Instructor resume you can submit beats a blank page. Resume Now is a resume builder — we are not claiming an occupation-specific template library for SOC unlisted.
A Pilot Ground Instructor resume that names the actual tasks on this page beats a blank template when you apply.
What Pilot Ground Instructors earn by state
This page does not show a state table, and the reason is worth stating: the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this job title, so there are no official state figures to show. Scaling the national median by a cost-of-living index would produce a number for every state, but it would be an estimate of living costs wearing a wage’s clothes, and PayCrunch would rather show you nothing than that.
What the national figures say: pay starts near $35,000, the median is $55,000, and the top of the range is $108,000. Those national figures are a PayCrunch estimate, not a Bureau of Labor Statistics published wage for this exact title.
It will change the job more than end it. AI tutors and online courses can deliver a lot of ground knowledge, so an instructor who only lectures generic material is exposed. But students still need a certificated instructor to endorse them, answer nuanced questions, run oral prep, and be accountable for their readiness. The instructors who thrive use AI to teach better and scale, becoming the course creator and mentor rather than competing with free content.
Is it safe to use AI to build aviation training material?
Only with verification. AI is excellent for lesson structure, analogies, quizzes, and explanations, but it can state a FAR, weather minimum, or ACS standard incorrectly with full confidence. Every regulatory and performance fact must be checked against the current FAR/AIM, ACS, and POH before you teach or endorse. The accuracy is your responsibility.
How does AI actually increase a ground instructor's income?
It attacks the two limits on your pay: prep time and reach. AI cuts curriculum and quiz prep from hours to minutes so you can teach more students well, personalizes study so pass rates and referrals climb, and helps you build an online or group ground school that earns beyond one-on-one hours. That's the path from the $55,000 median toward $80,000.
Can AI help students pass the FAA knowledge test faster?
Yes, used correctly. AI can generate targeted practice by subject, explain missed questions in plain language, and build focused study plans for weak areas, as long as you verify the content. Faster, higher pass rates are exactly what build your reputation and roster.
I'm an instructor, not a tech or business person. Is scaling realistic?
Yes. AI is the curriculum designer, editor, and marketer you don't have. Start by generating one lesson and quiz for your next student, and once you see the time saved, building a library and eventually a course is a natural next step. The instructors pulling ahead are the ones who started with one prompt.
Methodology & sources
Salary (median, 10th, top of the range) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS.
By state — the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own state medians, limited to states employing at least 500 people in the occupation. No cost-of-living arithmetic is applied to a wage anywhere on this page.
The plays — PayCrunch's own step-by-step guidance using publicly available AI tools. Tool names/URLs are real and current as of August 2026; prompts written to work as-is. Verify any professional output before relying on it.