Jobs and pay in Wisconsin

The highest-paying occupations in Wisconsin

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

1. Cardiologists$636,580
2. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$572,060
3. Anesthesiologists$443,990
4. Dermatologists$440,710
5. Surgeons, all other$416,000
6. Radiologists$392,610
7. Physicians, all other$391,740
8. General internal medicine physicians$367,160
9. Neurologists$342,520
10. Psychiatrists$331,070
11. Obstetricians and gynecologists$304,990
12. Family medicine physicians$290,640
13. Nurse anesthetists$273,170
14. Pediatricians, general$269,790
15. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$213,890
16. Orthodontists$212,860
17. Chief executives$208,350
18. Dentists, general$193,690
19. Podiatrists$185,100
20. Physicists$173,120
21. Computer and information systems managers$160,140
22. Pharmacists$148,740
23. Medical dosimetrists$142,300
24. Architectural and engineering managers$142,060
25. Law teachers, postsecondary$140,940

Where the jobs actually are in Wisconsin

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 aides82,430 employed
2. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand70,520 employed
3. Registered nurses68,060 employed
4. Fast food and counter workers67,750 employed
5. Retail salespersons67,640 employed
6. Cashiers65,380 employed
7. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers53,330 employed
8. Office clerks, general51,440 employed
9. Customer service representatives50,840 employed
10. Stockers and order fillers47,580 employed
11. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators46,360 employed
12. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners45,640 employed
13. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products37,700 employed
14. General and operations managers36,910 employed
15. Waiters and waitresses36,220 employed
16. Maintenance and repair workers, general30,880 employed
17. Bartenders29,520 employed
18. Nursing assistants28,370 employed
19. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive28,100 employed
20. Teaching assistants, except postsecondary26,520 employed
21. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks25,960 employed
22. Receptionists and information clerks25,580 employed
23. First-line supervisors of production and operating workers25,500 employed
24. Cooks, restaurant25,410 employed
25. Accountants and auditors25,100 employed

The best-paid Wisconsin 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$129,860 · Postsecondary nondegree award
2. Reinforcing iron and rebar workers$121,620 · High school diploma or equivalent
3. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$108,980 · Postsecondary nondegree award
4. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$105,820 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Personal service managers, all other$104,860 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Diagnostic medical sonographers$102,090 · Associate's degree
7. Nuclear medicine technologists$98,450 · Associate's degree
8. Boilermakers$97,590 · High school diploma or equivalent
9. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$97,120 · High school diploma or equivalent
10. Postmasters and mail superintendents$96,810 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. Dental hygienists$96,540 · Associate's degree
12. First-line supervisors of correctional officers$96,260 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$95,900 · High school diploma or equivalent
14. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$94,720 · Associate's degree
15. Radiation therapists$93,600 · Associate's degree
16. Structural iron and steel workers$92,820 · High school diploma or equivalent
17. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers$91,980 · High school diploma or equivalent
18. Detectives and criminal investigators$91,040 · High school diploma or equivalent
19. Health information technologists and medical registrars$89,260 · Associate's degree
20. Pipelayers$86,870 · No formal educational credential
21. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers$86,320 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Signal and track switch repairers$85,440 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers$85,350 · High school diploma or equivalent
24. Insulation workers, mechanical$85,120 · High school diploma or equivalent
25. Gas plant operators$85,080 · 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 Wisconsin does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Wisconsin 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.

Print binding and finishing workers lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

Other states