Highest-Paying Jobs Without a Degree: 2026 Statistics
Air Traffic Controllers is the highest-paying US occupation that does not normally require a bachelor's degree, at a national median wage of $148,080 a year. 9 of the 201 no-degree occupations pay a median of $100,000 or more, and 58 have a 90th-percentile wage that reaches it.
Wage estimates: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Entry preparation: O*NET Job Zone. The split and the counts are PayCrunch calculations.
Which US occupations pay well without a bachelor's degree, and how far the pay reaches. Every occupation in the BLS OEWS May 2025 release that can be matched to an O*NET Job Zone was split by whether a degree is the usual way in; the 201 that are not are ranked below.
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Air Traffic Controllers earned a national median of $148,080 a year, the highest of any US occupation that does not normally require a bachelor's degree (BLS OEWS May 2025 and O*NET, via PayCrunch).
Key statistics
Each line is one figure with its source. Quote any of them directly; the citation format is at the foot of the page.
- Air Traffic Controllers are the highest-paying US occupation that does not normally require a bachelor's degree, with a national median wage of $148,080 a year.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- 9 of the 201 no-degree occupations — 4.5% — pay a national median of $100,000 or more.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Only 2 of those 9 six-figure no-degree occupations are in healthcare. The rest are in transport, the skilled trades, protective service, production and computing.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- 58 no-degree occupations have a national 90th-percentile wage of $100,000 or more, and 11 reach $150,000.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Measured by the 90th percentile rather than the median, commercial pilots rank first among no-degree occupations, at $266,620 a year.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- The typical no-degree occupation pays a median of $52,830; the typical degree-track occupation pays $99,070. The gap between the two midpoints is $46,240 a year.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- That gap is a gap between midpoints, and the distributions overlap: 60 of the 201 no-degree occupations have a 90th-percentile wage above $99,070, the midpoint of the degree-track group.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- 10 no-degree occupations pay more at the 10th percentile than the median occupation in the whole release pays at its midpoint ($61,340).Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Of the 384 occupations that can be matched to an O*NET Job Zone, 201 are Job Zone 1-3 and 183 are Job Zone 4-5.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Within the no-degree group, 101 occupations sit in Job Zone 3 (typically vocational training or an associate degree), 92 in Job Zone 2 and 8 in Job Zone 1.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- The highest state-level 90th-percentile wage among no-degree occupations is $500,170, for commercial pilots in California, where OEWS reports 4,900 people employed.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- The widest pay distribution in the no-degree group is fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, where the 90th percentile of $144,210 is 4.6 times the 10th percentile of $31,630.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
The 25 highest-paying occupations that do not require a bachelor's degree
Ranked by national annual median wage, among the 201 occupations O*NET places in Job Zone 1, 2 or 3 — the zones where a bachelor's degree is not the usual way in. 9 of them pay a median of $100,000 or more, and only 2 of those 9 are in healthcare. Transport and the skilled trades, not medicine, are what the top of this list is made of.
| Occupation▲ | SOC▲ | Entry (10th pct)▲ | Median▲ | Top of range (90th pct)▲ | Best-paying state▲ | 90th pct there▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Traffic Controllers | 53-2021 | $78,420 | $148,080 | $215,610 | Virginia | $225,680 |
| Commercial Pilots | 53-2012 | $58,850 | $123,220 | $266,620 | California | $500,170 |
| Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers | 47-4021 | $59,270 | $109,910 | $158,890 | Nevada | $174,710 |
| Ship Engineers | 53-5031 | $57,870 | $109,530 | $165,490 | Louisiana | $244,020 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives | 33-1012 | $63,350 | $106,040 | $165,110 | California | $204,500 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | 15-1211 | $67,340 | $105,850 | $167,710 | Colorado | $209,090 |
| Radiation Therapists | 29-1124 | $80,560 | $105,310 | $156,710 | California | $208,100 |
| Power Plant Operators | 51-8013 | $61,790 | $102,040 | $131,940 | California | $171,800 |
| Nuclear Medicine Technologists | 29-2033 | $78,080 | $101,370 | $134,500 | California | $200,990 |
| Dental Hygienists | 29-1292 | $74,880 | $98,100 | $126,050 | Washington | $162,050 |
| Diagnostic Medical Sonographers | 29-2032 | $67,820 | $96,590 | $129,370 | California | $177,780 |
| Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists | 29-2035 | $68,890 | $95,480 | $127,670 | California | $174,030 |
| Detectives and Criminal Investigators | 33-3021 | $55,390 | $93,790 | $160,540 | Virginia | $195,190 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers | 33-1021 | $53,430 | $93,530 | $140,010 | California | $204,160 |
| Web Developers | 15-1254 | $48,100 | $92,650 | $162,290 | California | $202,850 |
| Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels | 53-5021 | $47,420 | $92,460 | $170,640 | California | $348,100 |
| Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians | 17-3021 | $59,050 | $82,890 | $125,160 | California | $161,650 |
| Respiratory Therapists | 29-1126 | $63,660 | $82,280 | $118,050 | California | $145,510 |
| Locomotive Engineers | 53-4011 | $60,680 | $81,410 | $109,220 | Massachusetts | $168,600 |
| Fashion Designers | 27-1022 | $39,490 | $80,960 | $146,870 | New York | $177,430 |
| Radiologic Technologists and Technicians | 29-2034 | $55,980 | $80,110 | $118,660 | California | $165,460 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 47-1011 | $53,280 | $79,920 | $128,260 | Washington | $167,120 |
| Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians | 49-3011 | $48,780 | $79,870 | $128,890 | New York | $240,310 |
| Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage | 13-1032 | $58,360 | $78,240 | $101,590 | Massachusetts | $124,640 |
| Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians | 17-3023 | $49,510 | $78,190 | $115,700 | California | $138,400 |
National figures, BLS OEWS May 2025; Job Zone from O*NET. Ranked by median; click any column to re-sort.
Ranked by the top of the range instead
The median is what the middle of an occupation earns, not what the occupation can reach. Ranking the same 201 occupations by their 90th-percentile wage puts commercial pilots first at $266,620 — $143,400 above its own median. 58 of these no-degree occupations have a 90th percentile at or above $100,000, against the 9 whose median gets there. That is the gap between what the job pays and what the job can pay.
| Occupation▲ | SOC▲ | Entry (10th pct)▲ | Median▲ | Top of range (90th pct)▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Pilots | 53-2012 | $58,850 | $123,220 | $266,620 |
| Air Traffic Controllers | 53-2021 | $78,420 | $148,080 | $215,610 |
| Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels | 53-5021 | $47,420 | $92,460 | $170,640 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | 15-1211 | $67,340 | $105,850 | $167,710 |
| Ship Engineers | 53-5031 | $57,870 | $109,530 | $165,490 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives | 33-1012 | $63,350 | $106,040 | $165,110 |
| Web Developers | 15-1254 | $48,100 | $92,650 | $162,290 |
| Detectives and Criminal Investigators | 33-3021 | $55,390 | $93,790 | $160,540 |
| Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers | 47-4021 | $59,270 | $109,910 | $158,890 |
| Commercial Divers | 49-9092 | $43,330 | $72,990 | $157,790 |
| Radiation Therapists | 29-1124 | $80,560 | $105,310 | $156,710 |
| Fashion Designers | 27-1022 | $39,490 | $80,960 | $146,870 |
| Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators | 27-1013 | $31,630 | $55,490 | $144,210 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers | 33-1021 | $53,430 | $93,530 | $140,010 |
| Choreographers | 27-2032 | $34,090 | $55,310 | $138,630 |
| Sound Engineering Technicians | 27-4014 | $37,570 | $73,130 | $137,370 |
| Flight Attendants | 53-2031 | $35,110 | $63,580 | $136,430 |
| Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film | 27-4031 | $38,520 | $74,990 | $135,180 |
| Nuclear Medicine Technologists | 29-2033 | $78,080 | $101,370 | $134,500 |
| Power Plant Operators | 51-8013 | $61,790 | $102,040 | $131,940 |
| Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners | 27-3092 | $42,130 | $72,420 | $130,560 |
| Diagnostic Medical Sonographers | 29-2032 | $67,820 | $96,590 | $129,370 |
| Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians | 49-3011 | $48,780 | $79,870 | $128,890 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 47-1011 | $53,280 | $79,920 | $128,260 |
| Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists | 29-2035 | $68,890 | $95,480 | $127,670 |
Ranked by the national 90th-percentile wage. BLS OEWS May 2025.
What the degree is worth, and where it is not
Across the 384 occupations that can be placed in a Job Zone, the typical no-degree occupation pays a median of $52,830 and the typical degree-track occupation $99,070 — a gap of $46,240 a year. That gap is the headline, and it is real. But it is a gap between midpoints, and midpoints hide the overlap: 60 of the 201 no-degree occupations have a 90th-percentile wage above $99,070, the midpoint of the degree-track group. The strongest earners in a no-degree occupation out-earn the typical degree-track worker in roughly 29.9% of these occupations.
The widest single distribution in the no-degree group belongs to fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, where the 90th percentile of $144,210 is 4.6 times the 10th percentile of $31,630. An occupation with a spread that wide is badly described by any one number, including its median.
Coverage, and what this page cannot tell you
A Job Zone can only be attached where a PayCrunch tier-A job page carries an O*NET mapping for that SOC code, and only where every such page agrees on the zone. That is 384 of the 824 occupations in the OEWS release, not all of them, so every count on this page is a count within those 384 and is written that way. The 440 uncovered occupations are not missing because they are unusual; they are missing because no job page has been built for them yet.
Job Zone describes the preparation an occupation normally takes, as classified by O*NET. It is not a legal requirement and not a hiring rule. Some people in Job Zone 3 occupations hold degrees; some people in Job Zone 4 occupations do not.
How to cite this page
Ready to paste for the page:
PayCrunch (2026). Highest-Paying Jobs Without a Degree: 2026 Statistics. Aggregated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://paycrunch.co/stats/jobs-without-degree-statistics.html (accessed 1 October 2026).
Ready to paste for the lead figure on this page:
Air Traffic Controllers earned a national median of $148,080 a year, the highest of any US occupation that does not normally require a bachelor's degree (BLS OEWS May 2025 and O*NET, via PayCrunch).
For any other figure, name the occupation and the release and credit the Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as PayCrunch: the wage estimates are theirs, and the aggregation is ours. Figures on this page were last recomputed on 1 October 2026 from the May 2025 release.
Method
Source
Every wage figure on this page comes from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release of May 2025, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. No figure here is a PayCrunch estimate. What PayCrunch contributes is the aggregation: the counts, medians, means and rankings across occupations are computed from that release and are labelled as PayCrunch calculations wherever they appear.
What the three figures mean
Entry is the annual 10th percentile wage for the occupation nationally. Median is the 50th percentile. Top of range is the annual 90th percentile — the wage level below which 90 percent of the estimated wage distribution for that occupation falls. None of the three is a maximum, a promise, or a statement about any individual.
The state figures
Where a state is named as best-paying, it is the state with the highest annual 90th-percentile wage among states that OEWS reports employing at least 500 people in that occupation. That employment floor is PayCrunch's rule, not the BLS's; it exists because unfiltered state estimates are frequently drawn from very small samples. The best-paying states dataset documents the floor in full and publishes the unfiltered answer alongside the filtered one for every occupation.
Rebuilding these numbers
The script that computes every figure on this page is .github/stats-engine/build_stats.py in the PayCrunch repository. It reads two files, /data/open/best-paying-states.json and the occupation page dataset, and regenerates all eight statistics pages. Nothing on this page is typed by hand.
Limitations
- OEWS is a survey. Every figure carries sampling error, and the error is largest where the occupation is smallest. BLS publishes relative standard errors alongside the estimates.
- These are occupational aggregates, not worker aggregates. Statistics here summarise the 824 occupation-level estimates, giving each occupation equal weight. They are not employment-weighted, so they do not describe the average American worker and should not be quoted as if they did.
- The 90th percentile is not a maximum. It is a point on a wage distribution. Pay above it exists.
- No cost-of-living adjustment. All figures are nominal annual wages.
- Wage and salary employment only. OEWS excludes the self-employed, so occupations with many independent workers are under-covered.
- SOC titles are classification labels, not job titles as employers use them, and one SOC code can cover several distinct jobs.
- One release only. These are May 2025 figures; OEWS releases are not straightforwardly comparable across years.
Frequently asked questions
Pay for individual occupations
PayCrunch pages for well-paid occupations that do not normally require a bachelor's degree, each with BLS entry, median and top-of-range figures and the best-paying state.
The full dataset behind these figures is on the best-paying states page, and every occupation is queryable through the PayCrunch API. All occupation pages →