Management and legal occupations were the two highest paying of the 22 major occupational groups in May 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. More than 30 percent of the workers in each of these occupational groups earned more than $43.75 per hour. The major occupational group with the highest employment level in May 2005 was office and administrative support workers, followed by sales and related workers, and food preparation and serving-related workers.
These estimates for wage and salary workers are from the Occupational
Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies. The OES survey provides national, state and metropolitan area estimates of employment and wages for 22 major occupational groups and for 801 detailed occupations, as defined by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.
The major occupational groups with the lowest average wages were food preparation and serving related; farming, fishing, and forestry; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; and personal care and service. At least 38 percent of workers in each of these groups earned less than $8.50 per hour.
Major occupational groups in which the employment was concentrated in the middle wage ranges (hourly wages from $13.50 to $27.24) included business and financial operations occupations; community and social services occupations; education, training, and library occupations; health-care practitioner and technical occupations; construction and extraction occupations; and installation, maintenance, and repair occupations.
Employment and Wages for Detailed Occupations
The detailed occupations with the largest number of employees were sales related. Retail salespersons and cashiers accounted for about 4.3 and 3.5 million workers, respectively. Other occupations with more than 2 million workers were general office clerks; registered nurses; laborers and freight, stock and material movers, hand; combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food; waiters and waitresses; janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners; and customer service representatives.
Among these large occupations, registered nurses had the highest average hourly earnings, $27.35. For the other large occupations, average hourly earnings ranged from $7.48 for combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food, to $14.27 for customer service representatives.
