Jobs and pay in Missouri

The highest-paying occupations in Missouri

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.

2 further occupations are paid more than every figure below, but BLS publishes them only as $239,200 or more, its reporting cap: anesthesiologists, surgeons, all other. They cannot be ranked against each other, so they are named here rather than listed as identical rows.

1. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$842,800
2. Cardiologists$648,070
3. Emergency medicine physicians$456,280
4. Orthodontists$332,630
5. Psychiatrists$312,680
6. Physicians, pathologists$261,830
7. Nurse anesthetists$242,630
8. Dentists, all other specialists$230,130
9. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$228,410
10. Physicians, all other$227,980
11. Pediatricians, general$223,910
12. General internal medicine physicians$216,570
13. Dentists, general$204,960
14. Athletes and sports competitors$172,700
15. Chief executives$172,320
16. Family medicine physicians$171,180
17. Computer and information systems managers$159,460
18. Architectural and engineering managers$157,800
19. Financial managers$143,460
20. Physicists$140,460
21. Pharmacists$137,610
22. Physician assistants$135,130
23. Psychologists, all other$134,890
24. Optometrists$133,810
25. Lawyers$133,450

Where the jobs actually are in Missouri

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. General and operations managers109,020 employed
2. Home health and personal care aides94,810 employed
3. Registered nurses76,310 employed
4. Cashiers69,430 employed
5. Stockers and order fillers67,390 employed
6. Retail salespersons67,140 employed
7. Office clerks, general56,050 employed
8. Cooks, fast food55,780 employed
9. Customer service representatives50,530 employed
10. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers47,760 employed
11. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand43,050 employed
12. Waiters and waitresses41,640 employed
13. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners41,070 employed
14. Nursing assistants34,050 employed
15. Elementary school teachers, except special education33,180 employed
16. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive33,180 employed
17. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators32,850 employed
18. Maintenance and repair workers, general31,180 employed
19. Fast food and counter workers29,360 employed
20. Accountants and auditors28,000 employed
21. Cooks, restaurant25,990 employed
22. Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education24,380 employed
23. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers22,360 employed
24. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products21,960 employed
25. First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers21,650 employed

The best-paid Missouri 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. Athletes and sports competitors$172,700 · No formal educational credential
2. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers$126,750 · High school diploma or equivalent
3. Air traffic controllers$122,200 · Associate's degree
4. Power distributors and dispatchers$105,450 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Nuclear technicians$104,580 · Associate's degree
6. Commercial pilots$102,990 · Postsecondary nondegree award
7. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$102,870 · High school diploma or equivalent
8. Power plant operators$101,900 · High school diploma or equivalent
9. Diagnostic medical sonographers$100,130 · Associate's degree
10. Radiation therapists$99,890 · Associate's degree
11. Nuclear medicine technologists$98,010 · Associate's degree
12. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$96,850 · Postsecondary nondegree award
13. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$96,360 · High school diploma or equivalent
14. Postmasters and mail superintendents$95,680 · High school diploma or equivalent
15. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$94,440 · High school diploma or equivalent
16. Dental hygienists$92,750 · Associate's degree
17. Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians$92,150 · Associate's degree
18. Service unit operators, oil and gas$90,580 · No formal educational credential
19. Gas plant operators$87,820 · High school diploma or equivalent
20. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers$87,520 · High school diploma or equivalent
21. Communications equipment operators, all other$87,030 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Signal and track switch repairers$86,300 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other$86,110 · Postsecondary nondegree award
24. Gambling managers$85,630 · High school diploma or equivalent
25. Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels$83,670 · 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 Missouri does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Missouri 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.

Cooks, fast food lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

Other states