Retail salespersons in the United States earn a median of $35,410 a year. Pay starts near $27,210. The national 90th percentile is $47,890. This page does not publish a state top-of-range figure.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Retail Salespersons, SOC 41-2031). Employment 3,897,860. Last checked 22 September 2026. National percentiles via the BLS OEWS release as republished on O*NET OnLine wage tables.
Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, May 2025 (Retail Salespersons). Entry is the national 10th percentile. The top chip is the national 90th percentile, not a state. The middle half of workers earns $29,900 to $38,670. Hourly equivalents: $13.08, $17.03, and $23.02. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook lists no formal educational credential as the typical entry-level education for retail sales workers. The marker on the exposure bar is PayCrunch editorial context, not a BLS statistic. Updated 22 September 2026.
Sell merchandise such as apparel, appliances, furniture, or other goods in a retail store. Help a customer find the right item, explain a difference between two products, and keep the display the planogram calls for.
AI tools that fit Retail Salesperson work September 2026
A short list of general tools. This is not a sponsored placement, not a weekly crawl, and not a product review with prices. Use whatever your employer already allows.
A general assistant for turning a spec sheet into plain language.
How a Retail Salesperson uses it: Draft a comparison of two models from the facts on the tag, then check the tag before you say it out loud.
AI inside Word, Excel, and Outlook.
How a Retail Salesperson uses it: Turn a messy shift note into a short handoff, or sort a return log in Excel.
Google's assistant inside Search and Workspace.
How a Retail Salesperson uses it: Look up a brand's own care instructions while you are still on the floor.
Retail salesperson: the floor, the tag, and SOC 41-2031
Retail salespersons are SOC 41-2031. The locked chips on this page are entry $27,210, median $35,410, and a national 90th percentile of $47,890. BLS counted 3,897,860 wage-and-salary retail salespersons in the May 2025 OEWS. This page is the person on the sales floor. It is not the cashier page (SOC 41-2011) and it is not a commissioned outside sales role.
What moves pay inside the published band
The national middle half, the 25th to the 75th percentile, runs from $29,900 to $38,670. That is a narrow band. The published step from the median $35,410 to the national 90th percentile $47,890 is $12,480 a year. Stores pay that step for people who can sell the higher-ticket assortment, cover a department without a manager standing there, and close the sale without guessing a spec that is not on the tag.
A shift a supervisor can audit
The useful record is specific: which fixture you recovered, which size hole you filled, which customer question you could not answer from the tag. A note that says the floor was fine does not explain a miss. Product knowledge that is not on the tag stays a question for the vendor sheet, not a guess.
Outlook without a made-up percent
O*NET reports projected growth for 2024–2034 as little or no change. O*NET also projects about 555,800 openings a year over 2024–2034, mostly from people leaving the occupation. Openings are not a promise of a job at the national 90th percentile.
Locked wage chips on this page: entry $27,210, median $35,410, national 90th percentile $47,890. SOC 41-2031. If a sentence disagrees with those three figures, the figures win.
How to do the work that sits inside this pay band
These steps stay inside the published national range. They are not a promise that you will be paid the 90th percentile.
The customer who asks which one is better is asking for a difference you can point to.
Compare these two products using only the facts I paste. List three differences a shopper would care about. If a fact is missing, say it is missing.Empty sizes are lost sales. A recovered fixture is visible.
Turn these on-hand counts and this list of empty pegs into a short pull list: what to bring out, what looks like a count error.A useful note names the exception.
Rewrite this shift note into five lines: what is broken, what was done, what the next person should check.Careers related to Retail Salesperson
Similar pay, same field
- Cashier $32,880
- Barista $31,200
- Stocker $37,330
- Front Desk Agent $35,070
Where this can lead
- Customer Service Representative $44,770
- Bank Teller $43,030
- Retail Supervisor $48,520
Wages in this list are the national medians printed on those pages. Every new page in this batch uses BLS OEWS May 2025.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Paste only facts you already have: a tag, a count, a calendar constraint, a file name. If the draft adds a number, a policy, or a product you did not provide, delete it.
Do not paste account numbers, full customer records, or anything your employer has told you to keep inside its own system.
TODO: PC_GEAR is not filled in this batch. No product links and no ASINs until a reviewed list exists. Do not invent ASINs.
TODO: state-wage table is not filled in this batch. The chips above are national OEWS May 2025 percentiles only. State medians are not estimated here.
Sources
- BLS OEWS — Retail Salespersons (SOC 41-2031)
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — related profile
- O*NET OnLine summary for 41-2031.00 (2025 wages and 2024–2034 outlook category)
- Salary (10th, 25th, median, 75th, 90th) — national BLS OEWS May 2025.
- Employment — national OEWS May 2025 wage-and-salary employment, 3,897,860.
- Outlook — O*NET reports projected growth for 2024–2034 as little or no change. Projected openings: about 555,800 a year.
- Not on this page — state wages, metro wages, and product recommendations.
Check another occupation
These five pages are the highest-employment OEWS lines that were missing from the directory.