Jobs and pay in Minnesota

The highest-paying occupations in Minnesota

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: cardiologists. They cannot be ranked against each other, so they are named here rather than listed as identical rows.

1. Radiologists$708,340
2. Dermatologists$625,790
3. Surgeons, all other$568,150
4. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$537,830
5. Anesthesiologists$496,510
6. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons$475,250
7. Emergency medicine physicians$390,940
8. Neurologists$381,670
9. General internal medicine physicians$373,700
10. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$372,200
11. Physicians, all other$367,320
12. Physicians, pathologists$362,270
13. Psychiatrists$336,410
14. Obstetricians and gynecologists$321,910
15. Family medicine physicians$280,030
16. Nurse anesthetists$266,190
17. Podiatrists$261,180
18. Pediatricians, general$226,660
19. Dentists, general$219,200
20. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$211,470
21. Chief executives$195,670
22. Judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates$190,110
23. Air traffic controllers$176,840
24. Computer and information systems managers$176,380
25. Marketing managers$173,300

Where the jobs actually are in Minnesota

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. Home health and personal care aides128,680 employed
2. Retail salespersons74,840 employed
3. General and operations managers72,860 employed
4. Registered nurses70,110 employed
5. Fast food and counter workers58,970 employed
6. Cashiers58,190 employed
7. Office clerks, general55,530 employed
8. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand54,480 employed
9. Customer service representatives53,340 employed
10. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators44,810 employed
11. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners42,300 employed
12. Stockers and order fillers40,270 employed
13. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers38,770 employed
14. Teaching assistants, except postsecondary38,540 employed
15. Waiters and waitresses37,630 employed
16. Software developers35,890 employed
17. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive31,330 employed
18. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products31,230 employed
19. Accountants and auditors30,530 employed
20. Maintenance and repair workers, general29,660 employed
21. Nursing assistants29,120 employed
22. Construction laborers28,530 employed
23. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks26,850 employed
24. Elementary school teachers, except special education26,640 employed
25. Cooks, restaurant26,080 employed

The best-paid Minnesota 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$176,840 · Associate's degree
2. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers$128,020 · High school diploma or equivalent
3. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$118,750 · High school diploma or equivalent
4. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$118,180 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Nuclear medicine technologists$107,380 · Associate's degree
6. Insulation workers, mechanical$105,670 · High school diploma or equivalent
7. Power distributors and dispatchers$105,630 · High school diploma or equivalent
8. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$104,180 · High school diploma or equivalent
9. Dental hygienists$103,970 · Associate's degree
10. Diagnostic medical sonographers$102,850 · Associate's degree
11. Plasterers and stucco masons$102,530 · No formal educational credential
12. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers$101,910 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$100,900 · Associate's degree
14. Gas plant operators$100,500 · High school diploma or equivalent
15. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$99,900 · Postsecondary nondegree award
16. Respiratory therapists$98,710 · Associate's degree
17. Commercial pilots$98,630 · Postsecondary nondegree award
18. Radiation therapists$98,000 · Associate's degree
19. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers$97,610 · High school diploma or equivalent
20. Signal and track switch repairers$96,780 · High school diploma or equivalent
21. First-line supervisors of correctional officers$96,720 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Boilermakers$96,190 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. Structural iron and steel workers$95,320 · High school diploma or equivalent
24. Brickmasons and blockmasons$95,220 · High school diploma or equivalent
25. Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters$94,410 · 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 Minnesota does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Minnesota 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.

Underground mining machine operators, all other lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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