Jobs With the Biggest Pay Gap Between Top and Bottom Earners (2026)
In Athletes and Sports Competitors, the top 10% earn 28.0 times what the bottom 10% earn (BLS, OEWS May 2025, via PayCrunch).
Wage estimates: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Rankings, ratios and shares on this page are PayCrunch calculations from that national file. Figures are annual and not adjusted for cost of living.
How wide the pay spread is inside each detailed occupation: the annual 90th percentile divided by the annual 10th percentile, from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national file.
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In Athletes and Sports Competitors, the top 10% earn 28.0 times what the bottom 10% earn (BLS, OEWS May 2025, 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.
- Athletes and Sports Competitors has the widest pay spread: the top 10% earn at least $742,310, 28.0x the bottom 10% ($26,500).Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Postmasters and Mail Superintendents has the narrowest: 90th percentile $111,740 vs 10th $85,090, a ratio of 1.31x.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Across 825 occupations with a published 10th percentile and 90th percentile, the typical (median) 90/10 ratio is 2.29x.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- 159 occupations have a top-10% wage at least 3 times their bottom-10% wage.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- All occupations combined: 10th percentile $31,200, 90th percentile $128,560 (4.1x).Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
25 widest pay spreads
90th-percentile annual wage divided by 10th-percentile annual wage.
| Occupation▲ | 10th percentile▲ | Median▲ | 90th percentile▲ | 90/10 ratio▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletes and Sports Competitors | $26,500 | $66,710 | $742,310 | 28.01x |
| Surgeons, All Other | $80,320 | $414,010 | $655,320 | 8.16x |
| Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric | $84,170 | $358,550 | $659,290 | 7.83x |
| Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons | $86,250 | $352,220 | $622,640 | 7.22x |
| Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance | $23,360 | $97,150 | $167,470 | 7.17x |
| Personal Financial Advisors | $50,190 | $105,070 | $357,020 | 7.11x |
| Chief Executives | $75,700 | $213,990 | $507,730 | 6.71x |
| Radiologists | $89,010 | $420,860 | $594,410 | 6.68x |
| Cardiologists | $107,190 | $496,010 | $712,130 | 6.64x |
| Physicians, All Other | $69,170 | $265,930 | $452,360 | 6.54x |
| General Internal Medicine Physicians | $73,570 | $256,560 | $475,430 | 6.46x |
| Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes | $48,010 | $82,890 | $284,570 | 5.93x |
| Dermatologists | $102,810 | $328,730 | $578,560 | 5.63x |
| Family Medicine Physicians | $76,830 | $244,180 | $428,550 | 5.58x |
| Anesthesiologists | $101,460 | $391,490 | $557,130 | 5.49x |
| Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary | $59,270 | $107,310 | $322,020 | 5.43x |
| Neurologists | $83,370 | $248,560 | $450,780 | 5.41x |
| Psychiatrists | $84,060 | $281,870 | $446,520 | 5.31x |
| General and Operations Managers | $50,090 | $105,770 | $253,390 | 5.06x |
| Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys | $28,190 | $47,340 | $138,440 | 4.91x |
| Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric | $100,180 | $300,080 | $489,710 | 4.89x |
| Physicians, Pathologists | $92,540 | $312,400 | $449,970 | 4.86x |
| Emergency Medicine Physicians | $103,610 | $335,550 | $495,910 | 4.79x |
| Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates | $46,950 | $153,990 | $221,710 | 4.72x |
| Podiatrists | $66,010 | $160,300 | $309,670 | 4.69x |
National figures, BLS OEWS May 2025. Click a column to sort.
25 narrowest pay spreads
Occupations where the published annual range is tightest, on the same ratio.
| Occupation▲ | 10th percentile▲ | Median▲ | 90th percentile▲ | 90/10 ratio▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postmasters and Mail Superintendents | $85,090 | $96,660 | $111,740 | 1.31x |
| Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse | $32,900 | $35,660 | $45,690 | 1.39x |
| Tellers | $34,360 | $43,030 | $49,680 | 1.45x |
| Roof Bolters, Mining | $63,750 | $78,540 | $92,830 | 1.46x |
| Food Processing Workers, All Other | $32,210 | $39,680 | $47,950 | 1.49x |
| Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | $29,580 | $35,730 | $44,490 | 1.50x |
| Nuclear Power Reactor Operators | $98,640 | $122,890 | $149,310 | 1.51x |
| Nursing Assistants | $33,940 | $42,260 | $51,980 | 1.53x |
| Slaughterers and Meat Packers | $33,340 | $40,130 | $51,090 | 1.53x |
| School Bus Monitors | $28,130 | $35,100 | $43,250 | 1.54x |
| Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $31,790 | $38,670 | $49,420 | 1.55x |
| Orderlies | $32,240 | $38,290 | $50,600 | 1.57x |
| Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers | $27,440 | $34,890 | $43,190 | 1.57x |
| Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials | $27,180 | $35,060 | $43,050 | 1.58x |
| Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders | $30,300 | $38,180 | $48,100 | 1.59x |
| Couriers and Messengers | $31,550 | $39,200 | $50,330 | 1.60x |
| New Accounts Clerks | $38,180 | $47,670 | $60,910 | 1.60x |
| Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers | $29,980 | $38,300 | $48,150 | 1.61x |
| Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers | $32,010 | $41,380 | $51,470 | 1.61x |
| Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants | $28,630 | $35,670 | $46,060 | 1.61x |
| Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers | $30,120 | $38,150 | $49,150 | 1.63x |
| Subway and Streetcar Operators | $55,180 | $86,380 | $90,140 | 1.63x |
| Dishwashers | $26,200 | $34,810 | $42,860 | 1.64x |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | $30,110 | $37,330 | $49,260 | 1.64x |
| Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $29,960 | $39,530 | $49,130 | 1.64x |
National figures, BLS OEWS May 2025. Click a column to sort.
How to cite this page
Ready to paste for the page:
PayCrunch (2026). Jobs With the Biggest Pay Gap Between Top and Bottom Earners (2026). Aggregated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://paycrunch.co/stats/pay-gap-by-occupation-statistics.html (accessed 14 October 2026).
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In Athletes and Sports Competitors, the top 10% earn 28.0 times what the bottom 10% earn (BLS, OEWS May 2025, via PayCrunch).
Method
Source
Every wage and employment figure on this page comes from the national file of the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release of May 2025, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. No wage here is a PayCrunch estimate. Rankings, ratios and shares are PayCrunch calculations from that file and are labelled as such.
What is counted
The ratio on this page is the annual 90th-percentile wage divided by the annual 10th-percentile wage. An occupation is included only when both percentiles, the annual median and employment are published and the 10th percentile is above zero (825 occupations). The median ratio gives each occupation equal weight. It is not the 90/10 ratio of all workers; that is the all-occupations row.
Rows left out
An occupation with no published annual median or percentile is left out of any ranking that needs that figure. In this release that is a handful of occupations for which BLS publishes an hourly wage only. The all-occupations median, and the all-occupations 10th and 90th percentiles, are the single total row in the file. That row describes workers. It is not the median of the occupation-level medians, which is a different statistic and is published on the average salary statistics page.
Rebuilding these numbers
The script that computes every figure on this page is .github/stats-gen/gen_national_stats_pages.py. It reads data/open/national_M2025_dl.xlsx and regenerates this page. 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.
- Wage and salary employment only. OEWS excludes the self-employed, so occupations with many independent workers are under-covered.
- 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.
- 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.
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