How to compare a job offer with local pay
Look past the title to the work you’d actually do. Then compare the pay, hours and benefits.
Match the occupation and area
Find the closest occupation by duties and SOC code. Choose your county to see its BLS labor market. Several counties can share one estimate, and Texarkana’s market crosses the state line.
The May 2025 BLS estimates describe jobs located in each area. They don’t measure the pay of everyone who lives there, and they exclude self-employed workers.
Compare the whole offer
Write down base pay, paid hours, schedule, commute, health costs, retirement contributions and bonus conditions. Keep uncertain bonuses separate from guaranteed pay.
For hourly work, use the published hourly estimate. Annual figures can involve different schedules, so dividing by assumed hours can give a misleading comparison.
Read the percentiles carefully
The middle half of wages falls between the 25th and 75th percentiles. Those percentiles don’t tell you which workers are new, experienced or senior.
A plus sign marks a lower bound. A missing estimate doesn’t mean zero pay. Compare exact estimates for the same occupation and year, then try the offer in a savings scenario with the extra costs you expect.