Am I underpaid?

How to use this calculator

Pick your occupation from the BLS list, choose your metro area, and enter your current salary or the offer you received. The calculator pulls official OEWS wage percentiles and tells you exactly where you land compared to everyone else doing the same work in the same city.

If your salary falls below the 50th percentile, you have a strong, data-backed case to negotiate. The tool generates a counter-offer script you can copy and customize for your situation.

Only 37% of workers have ever asked for a raise, but 70% of those who do get one.

Signs you're underpaid

You found this page for a reason. Here are the most common giveaways that your salary is below fair market value for your job and city:

• New hires with the same title are coming in at higher salaries than yours.
• You haven't had a raise that beat inflation in two or more years.
• Job postings for your exact role at other companies list higher ranges.
• You took the first offer without negotiating and always wondered.
• Your responsibilities have grown but your pay hasn't followed.
• You run the numbers in the calculator above and land below the 50th percentile.

Any one of those is worth investigating. Two or more and you're almost certainly leaving money on the table.

Workers who negotiate their starting salary earn an average of $5,000 more per year than those who accept the first offer.

What to do if you're underpaid

Knowing you're underpaid is step one. Here's how to actually fix it:

1. Get the data. Use this calculator to find your percentile. Screenshot it. You'll want this in front of you when you have the conversation.
2. Pick your target. The 60th to 75th percentile for your occupation and metro is the sweet spot. High enough to make a difference, grounded enough to take seriously.
3. Time it right. Annual reviews, after a big project lands, or when your manager is actively happy with your work. Don't ambush anyone on a bad Tuesday.
4. Lead with the data, not the emotion. "BLS wage data for [your job] in [your city] puts the 60th percentile at $X. I'd like to discuss bringing my compensation in line with that." That's it. No speeches.
5. Have a backup plan. If the answer is no, ask what it would take and when you can revisit. If the answer is still no, the market data you just pulled works for outside interviews too.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if I'm underpaid?

Plug your job title and city into the calculator above. If you land below the 50th percentile, you're making less than half the people doing your same job in your metro. Context matters though. Two years in? The 40th percentile is fine. Ten years in and still sitting at the 40th? That's a conversation you need to have.

What salary should I counter offer with?

Aim for the 60th to 75th percentile in your occupation and metro. It's aggressive enough to matter but easy to back up because you're pointing at federal wage data. You can push past the 90th with competing offers or niche skills, but BLS numbers alone won't get you there. And don't counter below the 50th. You're just negotiating against yourself.

How much of a raise should I ask for?

For raises, 10 to 20 percent is the range where you'll actually feel a difference and your manager won't laugh you out of the room. New job offers tend to settle 5 to 15 percent above the first number they give you. The BLS percentile data is your anchor here. If the data says market rate is 15 percent above your offer, ask for 15 percent. Don't round down to be polite.

Is BLS salary data accurate?

It's real payroll data collected from employers, not scraped job postings or self-reported surveys. BLS covers roughly 800 occupations across every major metro, so the sample sizes are huge. The downsides: it doesn't capture bonuses, equity, or benefits, and by the time it's published the numbers are 12 to 18 months old. Still, nothing free comes close for salary negotiation.

Should I negotiate salary for my first job?

Absolutely. Your base salary compounds. Every raise, every future offer, every 401(k) match builds on that starting number. An extra $2,000 at 22 turns into a lot more than $2,000 by the time you're 50. And the fear that negotiating will tank your offer? Overblown. Employers budget for it. The ones who rescind over a polite counter weren't worth working for anyway.

How is salary comparison different by city?

BLS breaks out wages by metro area, so the numbers shift a lot depending on where you are. A median software developer in San Jose makes more than a 75th-percentile developer in most mid-size cities. This calculator uses your specific metro, not national averages, which is the whole point. National averages are basically useless for negotiation.

Salary negotiation: by the numbers