Methodology

Every figure on this site is reproduced from one named public source, with the occupation code and read date printed beside it. Nothing is estimated, modelled or typed in by hand.

The source

All wages come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 state estimates, for two occupations: Real Estate Sales Agents (SOC 41-9022) and Real Estate Brokers (SOC 41-9021). We use the published 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile annual wages and the employment estimate for each state, read from the BLS state data file on September 8, 2026.

What a percentile wage means

The median is the wage at which half of the people in the occupation earn more and half earn less. The 25th and 75th percentiles bracket the middle half. For a commission-paid occupation the spread is wide, which is why every page shows all three rather than an average.

Commission and independent contractors

The OEWS surveys employers about their employees. Agents whose commission is paid through a brokerage's payroll are included; agents working as independent contractors are largely not, and top producers can earn well above the 75th percentile shown. The employment column therefore understates the licensed population of a state. Where a page needs the number of working agents it cites a roster-based count and says so.

Ranks and comparisons

States are ranked by the agent median wage among the states with a published estimate. "Median state" on the home page is the median of those state medians. Hourly figures divide the annual wage by 2,080 hours, the BLS convention for a full-time year.

Updates

BLS publishes state estimates once a year in spring. This site is rebuilt when a new release appears. Tables may be reused with attribution to Agent Salaries and the Bureau of Labor Statistics; the full table is published as an open dataset under CC BY 4.0 at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22892560. Corrections: hello@agentsalaries.com.