Measured against the Texas all-occupation median of $48,620, the three highest-paying Texas occupations that BLS says typically need less than a bachelor’s degree are Air traffic controllers ($170,080), Commercial pilots ($137,960) and Ship engineers ($127,810). Rank 15, Transportation inspectors, still pays $101,440.
Less than a bachelor’s degree is not the same as easy to enter. Of these 15 occupations, seven carry a high school diploma or equivalent as the BLS typical education assignment, ten are assigned no related work experience, and five are assigned a related-experience requirement. Several also need a federal or state credential that no education category shows — a Coast Guard merchant mariner credential, an FAA certificate, a state radiologic or court-reporter certification. Each occupation card below names its actual gate.
Commercial driving does qualify for this ranking — it places 153rd of the 515. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck driving has a Texas median of $56,290, above the state all-occupation median and above the median of most occupations in this selection, but below the fifteen shown in the table. It is set out further down with its own figures.
Commercial driving is in this ranking rather than at the top of it, so here is what its position does and does not tell you. Commercial driving is the route this site knows most about, so here is the balanced version early rather than buried at the bottom.
What it has going for it. The Texas median for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers is $56,290 in the BLS May 2025 state estimates, above the $48,620 median for all Texas occupations, and it places 153rd of the 515 Texas occupations this site ranks below a bachelor’s degree — above average, not near the top. No federal rule sets a course length, so instruction is measured in weeks rather than years, and BLS assigns the occupation no work experience in a related occupation. Some carriers hire and pay before licensure.
What it asks of you. The license is not the job: Finishing a course is not the same as being able to work. Testing, licensing, employer screening and in some cases a medical certificate can all still stand between a completed course and a first paycheck. Interstate driving requires you to be 21, and non-excepted driving requires a medical examiner’s certificate. A self-funded school route pays you nothing until a carrier hires you. And training a carrier pays for may carry a work commitment, which is a repayment risk to read in the agreement rather than a detail to find out later.
If that trade is worth examining, compare CDL training near you — free, and no obligation. If it is not, the rest of this page is about the alternatives, and nothing here needs you to choose driving.
The ranking
Every occupation below has a Texas median wage at least double the $48,620 all-occupation median, and federal data assigns it a typical entry education short of a bachelor’s degree. Two columns carry the qualifications, because pay alone hides them.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Rank and occupation | Texas median | Typical education | Related experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Air traffic controllers | $170,080 | Associate’s degree | None |
| 2. Commercial pilots | $137,960 | Postsecondary nondegree award | None |
| 3. Ship engineers | $127,810 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Less than 5 years |
| 4. Nuclear technicians | $124,060 | Associate’s degree | None |
| 5. Captains, mates and pilots of water vessels | $111,390 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Less than 5 years |
| 6. First-line supervisors of police and detectives | $111,000 | High school | Less than 5 years |
| 7. Court reporters and simultaneous captioners | $110,080 | Postsecondary nondegree award | None |
| 8. Gambling managers | $106,670 | High school | Less than 5 years |
| 9. Radiation therapists | $105,770 | Associate’s degree | None |
| 10. Power distributors and dispatchers | $102,890 | High school | None |
| 11. Chemical plant and system operators | $102,750 | High school | None |
| 12. Power plant operators | $102,510 | High school | None |
| 13. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation and relay | $102,470 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Less than 5 years |
| 14. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers | $102,140 | High school | None |
| 15. Transportation inspectors | $101,440 | High school | None |
The list stops at 15. Rank 16 is Nuclear medicine technologists at $101,170 (Associate’s degree), so the cutoff is visible rather than hidden. Download the full ranked dataset — all 515 rankable occupations as a CSV, which is the exact file this table is generated from.
BLS codes this occupation as typically requiring no work experience in a related occupation for entry. That is a national classification of the occupation’s normal entry route, not a measurement of any one employer. BLS assigns these categories from American Community Survey attainment data, O*NET, and National Center for Education Statistics program completions, together with qualitative information its economists gather from educators, employers, workers in the occupation, training experts and representatives of professional and trade associations and unions. It is not a statistical survey of employer hiring requirements and it does not count job advertisements. So the assignment does not mean every employer hires beginners, that no employer requires experience, or that any particular application will be considered.
Five of the fifteen occupations here carry a related-experience assignment, and ten are assigned None. For a career changer that distinction separates a job you could train for from a job you would reach after years in an adjacent role — so read the education and experience columns together, never the wage alone.
The high-school-or-less view
“Without a degree” means two different things to two different readers. The ranking above uses BLS’s full sub-bachelor set, which includes associate degrees and postsecondary certificates. If what you mean is no college at all, that is a stricter filter and a different list.
↔ Scroll table sideways to see all columns
| Rank and occupation | Texas median | Related experience |
|---|---|---|
| 1. First-line supervisors of police and detectives | $111,000 | Less than 5 years |
| 2. Gambling managers | $106,670 | Less than 5 years |
| 3. Power distributors and dispatchers | $102,890 | None |
| 4. Chemical plant and system operators | $102,750 | None |
| 5. Power plant operators | $102,510 | None |
| 6. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers | $102,140 | None |
| 7. Transportation inspectors | $101,440 | None |
| 8. Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers | $100,700 | 5 years or more |
| 9. Postmasters and Mail Superintendents | $97,550 | Less than 5 years |
| 10. Detectives and Criminal Investigators | $90,510 | Less than 5 years |
Same population, same sort, one filter changed. Generated from the same dataset as the main ranking, so the two views cannot disagree with each other.
How this ranking was built
The pipeline, in full
Every number below is printed so the ranking can be rebuilt from the two federal files named at the end.
- 801 detailed occupations in the BLS OEWS release for Texas, May 2025.
- 801 of them matched to BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4 by SOC code — a complete match, with none dropped.
- 793 have a published Texas annual median wage.
- 519 carry a typical entry education below a bachelor’s degree: high school diploma or equivalent, postsecondary nondegree award, associate’s degree, some college with no degree, or no formal educational credential.
- 515 are rankable, meaning they satisfy the education filter and have a published median. The 4 below-bachelor occupations excluded at this step are excluded only because BLS suppresses their annual median: actors, dancers, musicians and singers and disc jockeys, except radio. Nothing was removed by hand for any other reason.
- Sorted by Texas annual median descending, then SOC code ascending. The second key is what makes the published ranks reproducible: without it, two occupations sharing a median could change places between builds. The top 15 are displayed; rank 16 is named under the table, and every rank from 1 to 515 is in the downloadable dataset.
What was deliberately not filtered. Work experience in a related occupation is shown in its own column rather than used as a filter, because filtering it would remove qualifying occupations without saying so. No employment-size floor and no geographic-availability test were applied either; estimated Texas employment is printed for every entry instead.
Inputs, exactly. Wages: the OEWS May 2025 state file
oesm25st.zip, worksheet
state_M2025_dl.xlsx, rows where AREA_TITLE is Texas and
O_GROUP is detailed, using columns OCC_CODE,
OCC_TITLE, TOT_EMP, A_MEDIAN, A_PCT10 and
A_PCT90. Education, related experience, on-the-job training and the handbook-content flag:
BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4, which covers 831 detailed
occupations from 11-1011 to 53-7199, and its linked
education.xlsx. Wage definitions:
OEWS technical notes.
Reproduce it. The generated dataset is published as a CSV of all 515 rankable occupations, with rank, SOC code, title, Texas median, estimated employment and all three BLS assignments. Sources last checked 11 September 2026.
Occupation by occupation, with the published entry requirement
“Published entry requirement” is meant literally: what the agency, statute or federal rule says you must hold, cited below in each case. It is not a claim about what decides who actually gets hired, which is usually an employer’s own preference and is not published anywhere.
The table gives you pay and the BLS education and experience categories. What it cannot give you is the thing that actually decides whether you can enter: the credential, the hiring body, or the promotion standing in the way. Each card below names it, with the official starting point where one exists.
1. Air traffic controllers
Texas median $170,080. Texas 10th percentile $90,420, 90th percentile $222,230. Estimated Texas employment 2,060 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education an associate’s degree, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training long-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. Most controllers are hired and trained by the Federal Aviation Administration, which applies a maximum age for an original appointment. Read the exception carefully, because it is commonly repeated wrong: under 49 U.S.C. 44506(f) the limit rises to 35 for an applicant with 52 weeks of air traffic control experience involving the full-time active separation of air traffic after receiving a certification or facility rating — and the statute counts that experience in a civilian or a military facility alike. Military training on its own is not the exemption; the rated experience is. A separate provision covers retired military controllers on terminal leave, or retired within the past five years, who held a rating within five years. Not every controller works for the FAA: the DOT Inspector General reported in March 2026 that the FAA Contract Tower Program comprised 266 towers staffed by over 1,500 controllers, who must still hold the FAA control tower operator certificate. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
2. Commercial pilots
Texas median $137,960. Texas 10th percentile $68,460, 90th percentile $259,990. Estimated Texas employment 4,120 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education a postsecondary nondegree award, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training moderate-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. An FAA commercial pilot certificate, a written knowledge test and a check ride. The flight-hour total depends on the category and class you are certificating in: 14 CFR 61.129 requires at least 250 logged hours for airplane single-engine, airplane multiengine and powered-lift, 150 for helicopter and gyroplane, and 190 for an applicant who completes an approved course under 14 CFR part 142. Airline pilots are a separate occupation code and need an airline transport certificate, normally at 1,500 hours — though 14 CFR 61.160 grants restricted privileges at 750 hours to a military or former military pilot, 1,000 with a qualifying aviation bachelor's degree and 1,250 with a qualifying associate's degree. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
3. Ship engineers
Texas median $127,810. Texas 10th percentile $93,560, 90th percentile $150,460. Estimated Texas employment 660 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education a postsecondary nondegree award, work experience in a related occupation less than 5 years, typical on-the-job training none.
The published entry requirement. A U.S. Coast Guard merchant mariner credential, plus — per BLS — typically under five years of related experience first. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
4. Nuclear technicians
Texas median $124,060. Texas 10th percentile $101,190, 90th percentile $126,960. Estimated Texas employment 110 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education an associate’s degree, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training moderate-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. Most nuclear technicians hold an associate degree in nuclear science or a related technology, per BLS; some enter instead with a high school diploma plus military or apprenticeship experience, then complete employer-specific plant qualification. Very few Texas positions exist. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
5. Captains, mates and pilots of water vessels
Texas median $111,390. Texas 10th percentile $64,850, 90th percentile $170,800. Estimated Texas employment 3,400 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education a postsecondary nondegree award, work experience in a related occupation less than 5 years, typical on-the-job training none.
The published entry requirement. A U.S. Coast Guard credential for the tonnage and route, built on documented sea service. Related experience is typically expected first. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
6. First-line supervisors of police and detectives
Texas median $111,000. Texas 10th percentile $70,910, 90th percentile $149,570. Estimated Texas employment 5,540 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation less than 5 years, typical on-the-job training moderate-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. This is a supervisory occupation. BLS assigns it a high school education category and, separately, a related-experience category of under five years — two independent assignments to this occupation, not a description of a career ladder. In practice these posts are filled by promotion, so the entry gate is the underlying officer role. Table 5.4 shows no related Occupational Outlook Handbook content for this occupation, so there is no official narrative profile to link.
7. Court reporters and simultaneous captioners
Texas median $110,080. Texas 10th percentile $54,520, 90th percentile $137,410. Estimated Texas employment 1,270 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education a postsecondary nondegree award, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training short-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. Texas certifies court reporters through the Judicial Branch Certification Commission. Eligibility is a high school diploma or GED, a passing score on the Certified Shorthand Reporter written and skills exam, a state and federal criminal-history background check, and the application fee. The Commission states it does not require attendance at a court reporting school, nor a degree. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
8. Gambling managers
Texas median $106,670. Texas 10th percentile $60,680, 90th percentile $171,770. Estimated Texas employment 60 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation less than 5 years, typical on-the-job training none.
The published entry requirement. Three different regimes sit behind this one occupation code in Texas, and which one applies depends on the venue. The Texas Racing Commission licenses racetrack personnel, and that is the only one of the three whose licensing page was read for this page — it is the source linked here. Separately, TDLR’s Charitable Bingo Operations Division administers bingo, and tribal gaming is licensed by individual tribal gaming commissions under federal oversight; this page has not read either of those and states no requirement for them. BLS also assigns typically under five years of related experience. Only about 60 such jobs are estimated statewide, which is the smallest count in this table. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
9. Radiation therapists
Texas median $105,770. Texas 10th percentile $88,840, 90th percentile $134,320. Estimated Texas employment 1,000 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education an associate’s degree, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training none.
The published entry requirement. An accredited radiation therapy program plus, typically, professional certification and a Texas medical radiologic technologist certificate, which is issued by the Texas Medical Board. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
10. Power distributors and dispatchers
Texas median $102,890. Texas 10th percentile $75,990, 90th percentile $126,920. Estimated Texas employment 970 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training long-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. Being hired into a utility and qualified through long-term on-the-job training, but not only that. NERC issues four individual System Operator certifications — reliability coordinator operator; balancing, interchange and transmission operator; transmission operator; and balancing and interchange operator — by computer-based examination, and its program manual sets no prior-employment or experience prerequisite for sitting one. So a credential is available before a job, and not only after one. Two things this page does not claim, because the sources read do not establish them: which personnel are required to hold a certification, and whether any particular Texas employer treats it as a condition of hire. Employer-specific desk qualification is a separate step that follows hiring either way. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
11. Chemical plant and system operators
Texas median $102,750. Texas 10th percentile $52,460, 90th percentile $124,220. Estimated Texas employment 2,360 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training moderate-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. BLS publishes no detailed profile for this occupation, so there is no official narrative on how people enter it. In the O*NET survey of workers in this occupation, 68% of respondents reported a high school diploma or equivalent as the education needed and 30% a postsecondary certificate. This page does not state what the entry requirement is, because no source it has read establishes one: it does not claim a portable certification exists, and it does not claim that none does. Ask a specific plant what it requires. Official starting point. Table 5.4 shows no related Occupational Outlook Handbook content for this occupation, so there is no official narrative profile to link.
12. Power plant operators
Texas median $102,510. Texas 10th percentile $55,500, 90th percentile $127,710. Estimated Texas employment 2,100 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training long-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. Being hired into a generating plant, then long-term on-the-job training. Nuclear stations add federal licensing for reactor operators specifically. BLS occupation profile.
13. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation and relay
Texas median $102,470. Texas 10th percentile $63,840, 90th percentile $129,870. Estimated Texas employment 2,360 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education a postsecondary nondegree award, work experience in a related occupation less than 5 years, typical on-the-job training moderate-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. Being hired by a utility or contractor, with typically under five years of related experience first — commonly from another electrical craft. BLS occupation profile.
14. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers
Texas median $102,140. Texas 10th percentile $55,820, 90th percentile $121,800. Estimated Texas employment 2,030 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training apprenticeship.
The published entry requirement. The only occupation in this ranking whose typical on-the-job training BLS codes as Apprenticeship, which is the entry shape that can pay while you learn. Texas registers the contractor here, not the mechanic: TDLR requires a person performing installation, alteration, testing, repair or maintenance of an elevator, escalator or related equipment to be registered with the department, and administers that as a contractor registration under Health and Safety Code Chapter 754 and 16 TAC Chapter 74, with elevator inspectors registered separately. There is no individual elevator-mechanic license to obtain first, so the registration you work under is your employer’s. Official starting point. BLS occupation profile.
15. Transportation inspectors
Texas median $101,440. Texas 10th percentile $43,020, 90th percentile $149,430. Estimated Texas employment 2,290 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation none, typical on-the-job training moderate-term on-the-job training.
The published entry requirement. A mixed code rather than one job. O*NET lists two specialties under it, Aviation Inspectors and Transportation Vehicle, Equipment and Systems Inspectors, Except Aviation, so what you need depends on which of those you do and who employs you. No entry requirement is published at the occupation level. The O*NET page names no licensing or certifying agency, and this page does not name one for you: confirm it with the employer, or with the regulator for the equipment you would be inspecting. BLS assigns the occupation no related-experience requirement. Official starting point. Table 5.4 shows no related Occupational Outlook Handbook content for this occupation, so there is no official narrative profile to link.
What these wage figures do and do not measure
The median is the midpoint: half the workers counted earn more, half earn less. Two qualifications matter before reading any figure here as an offer.
Who is counted. Figures describe workers represented in the OEWS survey — covered wage-and-salary employment. OEWS excludes the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers and unpaid family workers, so it is not a count of everyone doing that work.
What is counted. The OEWS wage measure includes base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, tips and incentive pay such as commissions and production bonuses. It excludes overtime, shift differentials, non-production bonuses, severance, benefits and tuition reimbursement.
The 10th percentile is a lower-tail benchmark for workers represented in the OEWS wage distribution. It is not a starting wage, not an entry-level estimate and not the bottom of the occupation’s pay range.
The 90th percentile is an upper-tail benchmark, not a maximum. A 10th-to-90th span describes the middle 80% of the distribution.
OEWS does not publish Texas wages by experience or tenure, so this data cannot estimate how long a new entrant takes to reach the median. A specific employer, union or federal pay schedule may publish its own progression.
Highest paying is not most attainable
The order on this page is a pay order, and it runs close to the reverse of an accessibility order. The top of the list is the clearest case: air traffic control is entered through a federal agency that applies a maximum hiring age, and commercial piloting needs logged flight hours before the certificate. Neither is a route most career changers can take, whatever the median says.
Different questions deserve different comparisons, and they are on separate pages:
- Occupations BLS codes as typically requiring no related work experience — with the employer-first and credential-first route for each.
- Occupations compared on four separate timing clocks — instruction, credential eligibility, first paid employment, full competency.
- Texas programs that pay a wage during training — named, dated, and verified against each program’s own pages.
Where commercial driving sits
This site is about CDL training, so the honest thing is to show exactly where driving lands rather than either promoting it into the table or pretending it was excluded. It does qualify for this ranking: of the 515 occupations with a below-bachelor BLS typical-entry assignment and a published Texas annual median, heavy and tractor-trailer truck driving places 153rd of the 515. That puts it above the median occupation in this selection and below the top fifteen displayed above. That position sits inside a tie, so read it as approximate: aircraft cargo handling supervisors (152nd) are also at $56,290, the same Texas median, and this occupation is placed 153rd rather than 152nd only because the tie rule breaks a tie on the SOC code ascending. Its own figures are below.
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers — SOC 53-3032
Texas median $56,290, against a state all-occupation median of $48,620. Texas 10th percentile $38,150, 90th percentile $79,400. Estimated Texas employment 209,680 jobs. BLS assignments: typical entry education a postsecondary nondegree award, work experience in a related occupation None, typical on-the-job training short-term. BLS occupation profile.
The published entry requirement. A Texas CDL, with federal entry-level driver training recorded before testing, a commercial learner’s permit held at least 14 days, and — for ordinary interstate freight — a medical examiner’s certificate. Completing CDL training prepares a student to take the skills test. It does not by itself issue a license, guarantee a job, or put a new driver at the occupational median.
What this page will not claim is that driving is uniformly cheaper, quicker or more widely available than the ranked occupations. Several of them are entered through employer-funded or apprenticed routes, and a statewide employment count does not establish how jobs are distributed across Texas metros. The documented differences are the ones above: the median, the percentile spread, the estimated employment, and the named entry gate.
Common questions
What is the highest-paying job in Texas that does not need a four-year degree?
On this data it is air traffic controllers, with a Texas median wage of $170,080. BLS assigns the occupation an associate’s degree as its typical entry education and none as typical work experience in a related occupation.
Highest-paying is not most attainable. Entry runs through the Federal Aviation Administration rather than an ordinary employer, and the FAA applies a maximum hiring age, so for many career changers this occupation is closed regardless of pay.
How was this list chosen, and can I check it?
All 801 detailed Texas occupations in the BLS OEWS release for May 2025 were joined by SOC code to BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4, which publishes education and experience assignments for 831 detailed occupations. All 801 matched. 793 have a published Texas annual median, 519 carry a below-bachelor education assignment, and 515 satisfy both and are therefore rankable. Those were sorted by median, descending, and the top 15 are shown.
Yes, you can check it. The full ranked dataset of all 515 occupations is published as a downloadable CSV, the exact source files and columns are named in the method section, and rank 16 — nuclear medicine technologists at $101,170 — is printed under the table so the cutoff is visible.
Which of these occupations have high school or equivalent as the BLS typical education assignment?
Seven of the 15: first-line supervisors of police and detectives, gambling managers, power distributors and dispatchers, chemical plant and system operators, power plant operators, elevator and escalator installers and repairers and transportation inspectors.
Read that alongside the experience column and the entry-gate cards. Two of them — first-line supervisors of police and detectives, and gambling managers — also carry a related-experience assignment of under five years. And read the education value for what it is: BLS assigns the level of education typically needed for entry to an occupation. It is not a legal minimum, not a universal requirement, and not a promise that no one in the occupation holds more. Licenses, certifications, regulatory clearance and employer screening can all still apply, which is why each card names the gate it can document.
How many of them require related work experience?
Five of the 15 carry a related-experience assignment other than None: ship engineers, captains, mates and pilots of water vessels, first-line supervisors of police and detectives, gambling managers and electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation and relay. The remaining ten are assigned None.
Remember what the field measures. It is work experience in a related occupation, so an occupation can be assigned None and still be filled mostly by people with years of other employment behind them. It is a national classification of the occupation, not a survey of Texas employers.
Is the Texas median what I would earn starting out?
No. A median is the midpoint of the workers represented in the survey, at every level of experience. It is not a starting wage.
OEWS does not publish Texas wages by experience or tenure, so this data cannot estimate how long a new entrant takes to reach the median. A specific employer, union or federal pay schedule may publish its own progression. So the 10th-percentile figure on each card is not an entry-level estimate either — it is a lower-tail benchmark for the same population.
Where does truck driving rank on this list?
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck driving qualifies for this ranking and places 153rd of the 515 occupations measured. Its Texas median is $56,290, above the $48,620 state all-occupation median, and below rank 15, which pays $101,440.
It is set out separately on this page with its own median, percentile spread, estimated Texas employment and entry gate, and its row appears in the downloadable dataset at that rank, so you can weigh it against the ranked occupations on documented figures rather than on a claim about which route is easier.
Do these figures include overtime, and is everyone doing the work counted?
The OEWS wage measure includes base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, tips and incentive pay such as commissions and production bonuses. It excludes overtime, shift differentials, non-production bonuses, severance, benefits and tuition reimbursement.
Figures describe workers represented in the OEWS survey — covered wage-and-salary employment. OEWS excludes the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers and unpaid family workers, so it is not a count of everyone doing that work. That matters most in the operator and driving occupations here, where overtime is often a routine part of annual earnings and is excluded from these figures.
Does an occupation appear here if BLS has no handbook profile for it?
Yes. The ranking is built from the OEWS wage file and Employment Projections Table 5.4, both of which cover far more occupations than the Occupational Outlook Handbook does.
Three of the 15 — first-line supervisors of police and detectives, chemical plant and system operators and transportation inspectors — have an em dash in Table 5.4’s handbook-content column, so there is no related profile to link and their cards say so. Every other occupation in the ranking, gambling managers included, does carry handbook content and is linked to it.
Wage figures are BLS OEWS Texas estimates for May 2025. Education, related experience and handbook-content flags are from BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4. Sources last checked 11 September 2026. This page has not been reviewed by a named subject-matter expert.