Jobs and pay in Indiana

The highest-paying occupations in Indiana

Sorted by median annual wage — the midpoint of what people in the occupation are paid in this state, not what a newcomer earns. Occupations BLS did not release a wage for are absent rather than shown as zero.

1 further occupation is paid more than every figure below, but BLS publishes it only as $239,200 or more, its reporting cap: orthodontists. They cannot be ranked against each other, so they are named here rather than listed as identical rows.

1. Cardiologists$588,890
2. Surgeons, all other$459,300
3. Radiologists$430,640
4. Anesthesiologists$394,060
5. Physicians, all other$366,190
6. Obstetricians and gynecologists$351,990
7. Emergency medicine physicians$347,060
8. Physicians, pathologists$340,300
9. General internal medicine physicians$314,390
10. Psychiatrists$284,110
11. Family medicine physicians$261,940
12. Chief executives$254,180
13. Dermatologists$225,200
14. Neurologists$220,210
15. Judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates$183,000
16. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$177,710
17. Pediatricians, general$177,300
18. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$171,260
19. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$168,600
20. Dentists, general$166,650
21. Air traffic controllers$158,810
22. Architectural and engineering managers$155,810
23. Administrative law judges, adjudicators, and hearing officers$145,290
24. Medical dosimetrists$144,320
25. Pharmacists$144,290

Where the jobs actually are in Indiana

The same list sorted by how many people are employed in each occupation, which is a different question from what it pays and usually a more useful one. High pay in an occupation employing 400 people statewide is a narrower opportunity than it looks.

1. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand103,200 employed
2. Fast food and counter workers97,290 employed
3. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators85,610 employed
4. Retail salespersons83,670 employed
5. Registered nurses68,980 employed
6. Cashiers68,350 employed
7. Stockers and order fillers66,420 employed
8. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers59,090 employed
9. Office clerks, general58,480 employed
10. Home health and personal care aides57,050 employed
11. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners49,220 employed
12. General and operations managers47,180 employed
13. Customer service representatives44,630 employed
14. Waiters and waitresses43,620 employed
15. Maintenance and repair workers, general34,480 employed
16. Nursing assistants33,640 employed
17. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products32,350 employed
18. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks29,910 employed
19. Construction laborers28,600 employed
20. Teaching assistants, except postsecondary28,450 employed
21. Elementary school teachers, except special education27,720 employed
22. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks27,600 employed
23. Cooks, restaurant26,960 employed
24. First-line supervisors of production and operating workers26,870 employed
25. Accountants and auditors25,660 employed

The best-paid Indiana work that typically needs no bachelor's degree

Occupations BLS reports as typically entered with an associate's degree, a postsecondary certificate, some college, a high-school diploma, or no formal credential — sorted by what they pay here. Typical is not a requirement, individual employers set their own, and many of these carry state licensing that the national figure does not capture.

1. Air traffic controllers$158,810 · Associate's degree
2. Power distributors and dispatchers$129,080 · High school diploma or equivalent
3. Ship engineers$122,190 · Postsecondary nondegree award
4. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$108,720 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Power plant operators$107,000 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$105,700 · Postsecondary nondegree award
7. Commercial pilots$104,160 · Postsecondary nondegree award
8. Nuclear medicine technologists$103,230 · Associate's degree
9. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$102,040 · High school diploma or equivalent
10. Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators$100,280 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. Gambling managers$98,920 · High school diploma or equivalent
12. Postmasters and mail superintendents$98,680 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Radiation therapists$96,690 · Associate's degree
14. Locomotive engineers$92,790 · High school diploma or equivalent
15. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers$92,390 · High school diploma or equivalent
16. Dental hygienists$92,330 · Associate's degree
17. Signal and track switch repairers$92,200 · High school diploma or equivalent
18. Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels$92,000 · Postsecondary nondegree award
19. Boilermakers$91,410 · High school diploma or equivalent
20. Engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other$88,880 · Associate's degree
21. First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers$88,310 · Postsecondary nondegree award
22. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$86,880 · Associate's degree
23. Gas plant operators$85,790 · High school diploma or equivalent
24. Diagnostic medical sonographers$85,040 · Associate's degree
25. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers$84,650 · High school diploma or equivalent

A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one. CampusPin publishes the national picture of pay by entry education and which fields are actually awarded as certificates rather than degrees.

What Indiana does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Indiana employment divided by its share of U.S. employment. 2.0 means twice as concentrated here as nationally. It describes where the work IS — not what it pays, and not how easy it is to be hired. Limited to occupations employing at least 500 people in the state, so a tiny base cannot manufacture a large ratio.

Fiberglass laminators and fabricators lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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