Methodology & data sources

Where the data comes from

Our baseline is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, the most authoritative public source for U.S. wages. We pair it with role context from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Over time we layer in reviewed nurse submissions and, where appropriate, employer-provided ranges — each clearly labeled.

What each label means

• Verified public wage dataThe wage BLS actually published for that occupation in that exact place — national, state, or metro. Nothing is modeled.
• EstimatedUsed only where BLS withholds a figure (it suppresses cells with too few employers to publish safely). Modeled from the national baseline and a local wage index.
• Specialty estimateFor specialties BLS doesn’t break out (ICU, ER, travel, and so on). Starts from the real published wage for the parent occupation in that place, then applies a specialty adjustment.
• Nurse-submittedAggregated from reviewed nurse submissions above a minimum sample size.
• Employer-submittedProvided by an employer; not independently verified.
• Job-posting rangeDerived from advertised postings — not the same as wages actually paid.

BLS baseline (SOC codes)

We track the core nursing occupations the BLS measures directly. National figures are seeded from published OEWS May 2025 data and labeled Verified public wage data:

Every figure records how it entered the system. Values parsed directly from the official BLS files are flagged file_import and timestamped; anything modeled is flagged modeled and never claims verification. The admin data audit shows which is which, and the whole import is reproducible from the published BLS files with a single command.

State, metro & specialty figures

We import the official BLS state and metropolitan wage files, so a state or metro figure for a tracked occupation is the wage actually published for that place — not the national number scaled by an index. Those carry Verified public wage data and include the real local percentile spread (10th through 90th).

Two cases are still modeled, and we label them plainly rather than hide them:

• Suppressed cells. BLS withholds figures for an occupation in an area when too few employers report to publish without disclosing them — common for smaller occupations like nurse anesthetists in less populated states. There we fall back to the national median × a local wage index and label it Estimated.
• Specialties BLS doesn’t separate(ICU, ER, travel, L&D, nurse manager, and others). BLS reports “Registered Nurses” as one occupation, so we start from the real published wage for that occupation in that same state or metro and apply a specialty differential reflecting commonly reported pay differences. That is labeled Specialty estimate: the local base is measured, the specialty adjustment is not.

Travel nurse “packages” mix taxable wages with non-taxable stipends and are flagged as not equivalent to BLS wages.

All salary figures are gross wages — pay before taxes. Where a state levies no income tax on wages, state pages add a short take-home note, because that affects a nurse’s net pay without changing the gross figure we publish.

User submissions

Nurses can submit their pay anonymously. Submissions are reviewed before they affect anything and are only ever published in aggregate above a minimum sample size. Email and proof links are private and never surfaced.

Employer thresholds

Employer-level pay is gated by sample size: nothing is shown below 3 reviewed submissions, a limited range at 3–4, a median + range at 5–9 (when the profile also becomes indexable), and a deeper breakdown at 10+. We never publish “top-paying hospital” rankings built on thin or scraped data.

Sponsored content

Sponsorships keep the data free. They are always clearly labeled, never placed above the salary answer on core pages, and never influence salary figures or rankings. Paid links use rel="sponsored".

What we don’t claim

• We don’t present modeled estimates as official BLS figures.
• We don’t publish employer salaries without meeting sample thresholds.
• We don’t fabricate travel-nurse or specialty pay.
• We don’t treat advertised job ranges as wages actually paid.
• We don’t let sponsors change the numbers.

Methodology last reviewed July 17, 2026.

How the data gets sharper over time

This database is built to upgrade from modeled to measured as real sources are connected — and every change is visible in the label:

• Done — official state & metro wage files imported. Location figures for tracked occupations are no longer modeled: they now carry Verified public wage data with the real local percentile spread. Only suppressed cells and specialties BLS doesn’t report separately remain estimates.
• After reviewed nurse submissions reach sample size, specialty and employer figures gain a Nurse-submitted layer alongside the BLS baseline.
• We will never relabel an estimate as verified without the underlying source actually being in place.