Jobs and pay in North Carolina

The highest-paying occupations in North Carolina

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

1. Surgeons, all other$398,410
2. Dermatologists$367,350
3. Emergency medicine physicians$339,350
4. Neurologists$325,550
5. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$323,630
6. Chief executives$314,290
7. General internal medicine physicians$289,780
8. Physicians, all other$260,330
9. Physicians, pathologists$248,940
10. Dentists, all other specialists$225,990
11. Orthodontists$224,990
12. Nurse anesthetists$224,610
13. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons$224,040
14. Podiatrists$215,420
15. Family medicine physicians$215,230
16. Dentists, general$207,000
17. Pediatricians, general$183,550
18. Physicists$174,180
19. Natural sciences managers$173,870
20. Computer and information systems managers$172,860
21. Psychiatrists$168,880
22. Architectural and engineering managers$167,840
23. Financial managers$166,780
24. Marketing managers$165,480
25. Optometrists$161,560

Where the jobs actually are in North Carolina

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 salespersons127,540 employed
2. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand116,720 employed
3. Registered nurses111,120 employed
4. Cashiers106,440 employed
5. Fast food and counter workers92,230 employed
6. Customer service representatives89,510 employed
7. Stockers and order fillers87,510 employed
8. Cooks, fast food81,980 employed
9. Waiters and waitresses71,940 employed
10. Office clerks, general67,930 employed
11. Nursing assistants64,010 employed
12. General and operations managers63,740 employed
13. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers62,400 employed
14. Home health and personal care aides58,880 employed
15. Software developers58,470 employed
16. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants56,840 employed
17. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners53,330 employed
18. Cooks, restaurant50,150 employed
19. Accountants and auditors49,270 employed
20. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products49,110 employed
21. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks48,760 employed
22. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators46,670 employed
23. Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel46,040 employed
24. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive43,690 employed
25. Maintenance and repair workers, general43,440 employed

The best-paid North Carolina 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$129,230 · Associate's degree
2. Commercial pilots$127,310 · Postsecondary nondegree award
3. Nuclear technicians$110,430 · Associate's degree
4. Power plant operators$108,300 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers$107,700 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$106,100 · High school diploma or equivalent
7. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$104,710 · Postsecondary nondegree award
8. Radiation therapists$99,250 · Associate's degree
9. Dental hygienists$97,850 · Associate's degree
10. Postmasters and mail superintendents$96,410 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers$91,200 · High school diploma or equivalent
12. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$91,100 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Power distributors and dispatchers$90,420 · High school diploma or equivalent
14. Diagnostic medical sonographers$86,010 · Associate's degree
15. Explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters$85,630 · High school diploma or equivalent
16. Nuclear medicine technologists$85,240 · Associate's degree
17. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$85,120 · Associate's degree
18. Transportation inspectors$84,470 · High school diploma or equivalent
19. Electrical and electronics drafters$81,960 · Associate's degree
20. Artists and related workers, all other$81,850 · No formal educational credential
21. Gas plant operators$81,460 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Funeral home managers$80,730 · Associate's degree
23. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers$80,540 · High school diploma or equivalent
24. Respiratory therapists$80,090 · Associate's degree
25. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers$80,060 · 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 North Carolina does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of North Carolina 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.

Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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