Jobs and pay in Mississippi

The highest-paying occupations in Mississippi

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

1. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$544,130
2. General internal medicine physicians$325,610
3. Physicians, pathologists$261,570
4. Emergency medicine physicians$252,960
5. Family medicine physicians$235,630
6. Physicians, all other$228,130
7. Psychiatrists$213,680
8. Nurse anesthetists$198,410
9. Pediatricians, general$183,650
10. Surgeons, all other$180,420
11. Podiatrists$164,410
12. Dentists, general$143,660
13. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$143,580
14. Architectural and engineering managers$142,790
15. Chief executives$139,250
16. Health specialties teachers, postsecondary$137,220
17. Pharmacists$133,230
18. Physicists$129,970
19. Nurse practitioners$124,730
20. Computer and information systems managers$124,280
21. Purchasing managers$122,940
22. Natural sciences managers$119,430
23. Industrial production managers$118,660
24. Medical dosimetrists$115,490
25. Electronics engineers, except computer$112,400

Where the jobs actually are in Mississippi

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. Retail salespersons38,400 employed
2. Fast food and counter workers31,220 employed
3. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand30,750 employed
4. Cashiers30,490 employed
5. Registered nurses29,060 employed
6. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers24,160 employed
7. Stockers and order fillers23,420 employed
8. Home health and personal care aides21,800 employed
9. Customer service representatives20,860 employed
10. Office clerks, general17,600 employed
11. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators16,800 employed
12. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners15,940 employed
13. Waiters and waitresses15,190 employed
14. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive14,720 employed
15. Maintenance and repair workers, general14,550 employed
16. Nursing assistants14,200 employed
17. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers13,680 employed
18. First-line supervisors of retail sales workers13,020 employed
19. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks12,160 employed
20. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks11,330 employed
21. Cooks, fast food11,170 employed
22. Elementary school teachers, except special education11,060 employed
23. Cooks, restaurant10,770 employed
24. General and operations managers10,630 employed
25. First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers10,480 employed

The best-paid Mississippi 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. Boilermakers$105,910 · High school diploma or equivalent
2. Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels$104,220 · Postsecondary nondegree award
3. Commercial pilots$103,640 · Postsecondary nondegree award
4. Power plant operators$102,400 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Power distributors and dispatchers$98,960 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Ship engineers$98,380 · Postsecondary nondegree award
7. Gambling managers$97,170 · High school diploma or equivalent
8. Locomotive engineers$96,710 · High school diploma or equivalent
9. Postmasters and mail superintendents$95,270 · High school diploma or equivalent
10. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers$95,210 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$94,970 · Postsecondary nondegree award
12. Print binding and finishing workers$91,850 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Air traffic controllers$88,110 · Associate's degree
14. Radiation therapists$88,100 · Associate's degree
15. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$85,770 · High school diploma or equivalent
16. Nuclear medicine technologists$83,340 · Associate's degree
17. Gas plant operators$81,600 · High school diploma or equivalent
18. Electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians$81,180 · Associate's degree
19. Engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other$79,350 · Associate's degree
20. Railroad conductors and yardmasters$78,010 · High school diploma or equivalent
21. Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators$77,100 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Diagnostic medical sonographers$76,520 · Associate's degree
23. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$75,890 · High school diploma or equivalent
24. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers$75,180 · High school diploma or equivalent
25. Aircraft mechanics and service technicians$74,880 · Postsecondary nondegree award

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 Mississippi does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Mississippi 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.

Upholsterers lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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