How we estimate total compensation

Salary is only part of what a job pays. Employers also pay for bonuses, paid leave, health insurance, 401(k) matching and other retirement plans. Our job listings show an estimate of total compensation so you can see the whole package. Every figure is an estimate, not an offer. Check the details with the employer.

When the employer posts a pay range

We take both ends of the posted range and add typical benefits and bonus to each. Hourly pay is converted at 2,080 hours a year. Listings show this as "Est. total comp ~$X–$Y".

When no pay is posted

We match the job title to a U.S. government occupation category (SOC code) and show a range from the median to the 90th-percentile wage for the occupation nationally: half of people in the job earn more than the low end, and 10% earn more than the high end. Both come from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, then add typical benefits and bonus. Listings show this as "Est. total comp ~$X–$Y". It is not starting pay; many people in the job earn less than the low end.

If only one figure can be worked out, we show a single "~$X".

Benefits and bonus

We divide pay by the share of total compensation that employers pay as wages. That share comes from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, Table 2 (civilian workers): 66.9% for management, business and financial jobs, 67.7% for professional and for installation/maintenance jobs, 68.0% for construction, 67.0% for production and 75.2% for sales. The rest covers supplemental pay (bonuses and overtime), paid leave, insurance, retirement and savings, and legally required benefits.

Rough estimates: broad job groups

When a title doesn't clearly match a single BLS occupation, we use the broader BLS group it belongs to, for example "Computer and Mathematical", "Architecture and Engineering", "Management", "Sales and Related" or "Business and Financial Operations". We use the same median-to-90th-percentile method and the same OEWS May 2025 data. If no group fits, we use "All occupations", with the ECEC all-workers wage share of 68.4%. These are rough estimates.

Internships and co-ops

If the employer posts an hourly rate, we show it. If not, we show the BLS 10th-percentile hourly wage for the matching occupation, or its broader group, from OEWS May 2025. That's the bottom of the pay scale for the job, which we use as a stand-in for intern and entry pay. No benefits are added, and we show a single figure.

Temporary and contract roles

If the employer posts an hourly rate, we show it. If not, we show the BLS OEWS May 2025 median to 90th-percentile hourly wage for the matching occupation group, with no benefits added, for example "~$40–$74/hr".

Jobs outside the U.S.

We start from the U.S. estimate and scale it by the country's average wage compared with the U.S. The ratio comes from OECD Average annual wages, 2025 (US$ PPP, constant prices), for example 0.76 for the UK, 0.88 for Germany and 0.78 for Canada. For countries outside the OECD, we use the ratio of GNI per person at purchasing-power parity from the World Bank, for example 0.13 for India and 1.52 for Singapore. Listings that say only "international", "EMEA" or similar use the plain average of the OECD ratios (0.71). Figures are shown in US dollars at purchasing-power parity and are rough. Tech pay abroad often differs from a country's average, so treat these as ballparks only.

What we leave out

We don't include stock or options. Equity can be large at tech and AI companies, but it varies too much and there's no reliable public dataset for it. We have no figure for a country with no OECD or World Bank data (currently Taiwan). Pay also varies by city and experience.