# Wages.fyi data and citation guide

> Public US salary and career research, with compensation measurements and source coverage kept explicit.

Canonical reference: https://wages.fyi/data

## Reading pay evidence

### Match the measurement

Total compensation, base salary, offered wages, estimates and job-posting ranges describe different things. Compare like with like.

### Keep the cohort intact

Preserve employer, career, location, level, currency, period and sample denominator. Never average source medians or add overlapping sample counts.

### Check the evidence

A refresh date describes collection or serving freshness, not necessarily when pay was earned. Read the original source and its disclosed period.

### Keep uncertainty visible

Unknown components are undisclosed, not zero. Small or suppressed samples are not evidence of a particular salary. The available records do not describe every employee.

## Citation format

Cite the canonical Wages.fyi page, the employer/career/location, the exact measurement and currency, the disclosed pay period and sample unit, and the date you accessed the page. Do not describe offered-wage filings as realized employee total compensation or as counts of distinct employees.

## Public Markdown views

Add /data before a supported employer or career URL and .md at its end. For example:

- [Jane Street](https://wages.fyi/data/companies/jane-street.md)
- [Software Engineer](https://wages.fyi/data/salaries/software-engineer.md)
- [Accountant](https://wages.fyi/data/salaries/accountant.md)

These are bounded selections of supported public-source cohorts, not complete database downloads. They exclude contributor reports and private records. Missing or unsupported combinations return 404. Cite the linked human-readable canonical page; read its full table for additional coverage.

## State salary comparison reports

Browse https://wages.fyi/salary-reports for selected US career comparisons using the same occupation, wage period and native unit across state/DC markets. Every report has a /data.csv download preserving percentile qualifiers and original source URLs, and a /reference.md text view. Cite the human report. The published national median is not an average of state medians; rankings exclude bounded/unavailable medians. These occupational wages are not employer base salary or complete total compensation.

## Career and occupation wage references

Occupation profiles provide separate career descriptions, tasks, skill references and native wage percentiles. Read /data/careers/{career-slug}.md for a national reference or /data/careers/{career-slug}/salary/{area-slug}.md for a supported local wage table. Wage groups may cover more than the exact career title. Their exports do not disclose employment or sample counts, and they are not employer base or total compensation.

## Industry payroll pay

Browse [specific industries](https://wages.fyi/industry-pay) and [occupation families](https://wages.fyi/careers). Read /data/industry-pay/{industry-slug}.md and /data/industry-pay/{industry-slug}/{state-slug}.md for official private-industry payroll averages. These preserve the original annual/weekly means, jobs, establishments, ownership, NAICS hierarchy, year and suppression. They are not median salary, occupation pay, individual base/bonus/equity packages or unique employee reports. Broad and detailed industries overlap; do not add their counts. State comparisons do not adjust for occupation mix, hours or cost of living.

## Endowment and foundation pay

Research /endowments for source-specific investment-office and foundation pay. Read /data/endowments/{institution-slug}.md or /data/endowments/{institution-slug}/pay/{record-id}.md for bounded public references. Executive disclosures, posted base ranges and offered wages stay separate. Filing fiscal years can differ from compensation calendar years. Combined retirement/benefits/deferred categories are not cash salary; previously reported deferred amounts overlap and must never be added again. Missing role levels and components remain unknown.

## Methodology and rights

- [Full methodology](https://wages.fyi/methodology)
- [Source coverage](https://wages.fyi/sources)
- [Privacy and consent](https://wages.fyi/privacy)
- [Salary career directory](https://wages.fyi/salaries/roles)
- [Employer directory](https://wages.fyi/companies)
- [Pay and offer guides](https://wages.fyi/guides)
- [Salary market directory](https://wages.fyi/salary-markets)
- [XML sitemap](https://wages.fyi/sitemap.xml)

Public readability does not grant a new redistribution or training license for source material. Original source terms and separate contributor consent still apply. Wages.fyi is an independent research platform, not the employer or original publisher of every statistic.