<p>The <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">American Community Survey (ACS)</a>, <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Current Population Survey (CPS)</a>, and multiple <a href="https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> sources all provide free and public data on what you are looking for.</p>
<p>The ACS and CPS in particular will also contain information on age, gender, and education as you are looking for. For jobs, these datasets may all have slightly different notations, but most will standardize to the Standard Occupational Code (SOC) or Occupational Information Network (ONET) format - these are basically the same up to 6 digits.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-26T23:50:49.213Z
2024-11-26T23:50:49.213Z
qwerty
<blockquote>
<p>Is there somewhere where economists would usually go to access these kinds of figures... ...if they were interested in doing serious statistics?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Professional scholars (i.e. with university, NGO research institute or government research unit) typically can get their hands on anonymized payroll/tax data. From tax data you can figure out what income person has. Sometimes researcher will work with some site that records and compares job pay across professions such as <a href="https://www.salary.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">salary.com</a>. You will usually be able to get other things such as highest completed education, sometimes gender and age as well.  Typically a publication worthy research would use one of the above. Sometimes people also use surveys (e.g. census), but that is falling out of fashion since people sometimes lie (intentionally or unintentionally) so survey data are of less quality.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>...if they were interested in a quick but scholarly search for an unimportant question.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, the thing is that this is usually not done with micro data. While micro data nowadays are collected quite often so they do exist, they are by their nature very private so there are GDPR and other issues. Such data will not be handed to you the same way as macro data on GDP or unemployment are. You will usually have to go through some bureaucratic hurdles to get anonymized tax or payroll data.</p>
<p>Census micro data are public but not as a whole only sample and I think only for some regions of US, you can explore that <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/microdata.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. This is probably your best option if you wanna do some quick stats.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-27T00:05:08.533Z
I disagree that most labor market researchers (I would consider myself to be one) think (1) surveys are falling out of fashion - especially for lying - or that (2) most professionals have access to non-public data microdata. Such microdata usually contains data that can be de-identified and therefore requires special permissions. LEHD microdata for example is only available at select physical locations across the country. Furthermore, estimations of age, education, and gender may be less accurate in these other sources.
qwerty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-27T07:56:04.707Z
2022-10-27T07:56:04.707Z
1muflon1
<p>This is a pretty beginner question. My background is in pure mathematics, and I know statistics and R, but no economics.</p>
<p>It might be a bit much tagging this as a data request question since I'm trying to get a sense of some of the basics.</p>
<p>I'm interested in statistics concerning the highest earning jobs, along with other associated information such as age, gender, and education.</p>
<p>Is there somewhere where economists would usually go to access these kinds of figures...</p>
<ol>
<li>...if they were interested in doing serious statistics</li>
<li>...if they were interested in a quick but scholarly search for an unimportant question.</li>
</ol>
<p>Right now I'm only curious about figures involving high income, but maybe the answer here involves a good source of data overall -I'd benefit from that as well.</p>

<labor-economics><data-request><wages><data>
Finding data on high paying jobs
Ronald J. Zallman
# Finding data on high paying jobs

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-10-27)

This is a pretty beginner question. My background is in pure mathematics, and I know statistics and R, but no economics.

It might be a bit much tagging this as a data request question since I'm trying to get a sense of some of the basics.

I'm interested in statistics concerning the highest earning jobs, along with other associated information such as age, gender, and education.

Is there somewhere where economists would usually go to access these kinds of figures...

1. ...if they were interested in doing serious statistics
2. ...if they were interested in a quick but scholarly search for an unimportant question.

Right now I'm only curious about figures involving high income, but maybe the answer here involves a good source of data overall -I'd benefit from that as well.

**Tags:** labor-economics, data-request, wages, data


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-11-26. Score: 1

The [American Community Survey (ACS)](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data.html), [Current Population Survey (CPS)](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html), and multiple [Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm) sources all provide free and public data on what you are looking for.

The ACS and CPS in particular will also contain information on age, gender, and education as you are looking for. For jobs, these datasets may all have slightly different notations, but most will standardize to the Standard Occupational Code (SOC) or Occupational Information Network (ONET) format - these are basically the same up to 6 digits.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2022-10-27. Score: -1

> Is there somewhere where economists would usually go to access these kinds of figures... ...if they were interested in doing serious statistics?

Professional scholars (i.e. with university, NGO research institute or government research unit) typically can get their hands on anonymized payroll/tax data. From tax data you can figure out what income person has. Sometimes researcher will work with some site that records and compares job pay across professions such as [salary.com](https://www.salary.com/). You will usually be able to get other things such as highest completed education, sometimes gender and age as well. Typically a publication worthy research would use one of the above. Sometimes people also use surveys (e.g. census), but that is falling out of fashion since people sometimes lie (intentionally or unintentionally) so survey data are of less quality.

> ...if they were interested in a quick but scholarly search for an unimportant question.

Well, the thing is that this is usually not done with micro data. While micro data nowadays are collected quite often so they do exist, they are by their nature very private so there are GDPR and other issues. Such data will not be handed to you the same way as macro data on GDP or unemployment are. You will usually have to go through some bureaucratic hurdles to get anonymized tax or payroll data.

Census micro data are public but not as a whole only sample and I think only for some regions of US, you can explore that [here](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/microdata.html). This is probably your best option if you wanna do some quick stats.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I disagree that most labor market researchers (I would consider myself to be one) think (1) surveys are falling out of fashion - especially for lying - or that (2) most professionals have access to non-public data microdata. Such microdata usually contains data that can be de-identified and therefore requires special permissions. LEHD microdata for example is only available at select physical locations across the country. Furthermore, estimations of age, education, and gender may be less accurate in these other sources.  

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