Jobs and pay in Oklahoma

The highest-paying occupations in Oklahoma

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. Surgeons, all other$553,790
2. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$530,070
3. Obstetricians and gynecologists$370,260
4. Family medicine physicians$361,350
5. Emergency medicine physicians$348,540
6. Physicians, pathologists$317,850
7. Psychiatrists$271,640
8. Physicians, all other$259,220
9. Podiatrists$253,380
10. Pediatricians, general$236,780
11. Dentists, all other specialists$223,160
12. General internal medicine physicians$216,570
13. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$215,760
14. Physicists$200,050
15. Dentists, general$166,170
16. Chief executives$163,790
17. Architectural and engineering managers$157,330
18. Nurse anesthetists$156,830
19. Petroleum engineers$153,020
20. Medical dosimetrists$143,120
21. Psychologists, all other$141,290
22. Computer and information systems managers$137,280
23. Physician assistants$136,550
24. Pharmacists$135,140
25. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$133,680

Where the jobs actually are in Oklahoma

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. Fast food and counter workers52,520 employed
2. General and operations managers43,890 employed
3. Retail salespersons43,830 employed
4. Cashiers41,140 employed
5. Registered nurses38,270 employed
6. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand38,210 employed
7. Customer service representatives34,460 employed
8. Stockers and order fillers32,910 employed
9. Office clerks, general31,870 employed
10. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers27,840 employed
11. Waiters and waitresses27,000 employed
12. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners23,620 employed
13. Home health and personal care aides20,310 employed
14. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive20,120 employed
15. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers19,860 employed
16. Nursing assistants19,410 employed
17. First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers18,900 employed
18. Maintenance and repair workers, general18,670 employed
19. Elementary school teachers, except special education18,500 employed
20. Cooks, restaurant17,050 employed
21. Accountants and auditors16,720 employed
22. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks16,490 employed
23. Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education15,480 employed
24. First-line supervisors of retail sales workers15,340 employed
25. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products14,220 employed

The best-paid Oklahoma 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. Commercial pilots$126,180 · Postsecondary nondegree award
2. Air traffic controllers$123,220 · Associate's degree
3. Transportation inspectors$111,070 · High school diploma or equivalent
4. Power distributors and dispatchers$105,530 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers$105,430 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Railroad conductors and yardmasters$102,260 · High school diploma or equivalent
7. Radiation therapists$98,390 · Associate's degree
8. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$97,800 · Postsecondary nondegree award
9. Dental hygienists$97,580 · Associate's degree
10. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$96,830 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. Postmasters and mail superintendents$96,080 · High school diploma or equivalent
12. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers$95,140 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Locomotive engineers$91,970 · High school diploma or equivalent
14. Nuclear medicine technologists$90,640 · Associate's degree
15. Power plant operators$88,590 · High school diploma or equivalent
16. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$87,480 · Associate's degree
17. Life, physical, and social science technicians, all other$86,260 · Associate's degree
18. First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers$85,310 · Postsecondary nondegree award
19. Diagnostic medical sonographers$83,670 · Associate's degree
20. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$82,830 · High school diploma or equivalent
21. Insurance appraisers, auto damage$82,340 · Postsecondary nondegree award
22. Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators$82,150 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. Engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other$81,330 · Associate's degree
24. Calibration technologists and technicians$80,920 · Associate's degree
25. Electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians$80,880 · Associate's degree

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 Oklahoma does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Oklahoma 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.

Gambling surveillance officers and gambling investigators lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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