Mean Salary (Average Salary)

How It Works

The mean salary is calculated by summing all wages and dividing by the total number of workers. For most occupations, the mean is higher than the median because the salary distribution is "right-skewed" — there are more extremely high earners pulling the average up than extremely low earners pulling it down. For example, if the median software engineer salary is $120,000, the mean might be $135,000 because a subset of senior engineers, architects, and leads earn $200,000-$400,000+. This gap between mean and median is a useful signal: a large gap indicates significant pay inequality within the occupation, where a small number of top earners substantially outpace the majority. The mean is useful for understanding total wage expenditure (employers multiplying mean by headcount to budget), but the median is more useful for individual workers asking "what should I expect to earn?" SalaryTruth shows both metrics so you can see the full picture.

Related Terms

• Median Salary — The middle point of all salaries for a given role — half of workers earn more, half earn less. More useful than average salary because it isn't skewed by extremely high or low earners.
• Salary Percentile — Your position in the salary distribution — the 75th percentile (p75) means you earn more than 75% of workers in the same role. BLS reports p10, p25, p50, p75, and p90.
• Wage Distribution — The full range and spread of salaries for a given occupation — from the lowest earners (p10) to the highest (p90) — revealing how pay varies by experience, location, and employer.