Salary Percentile Calculator for the United States in 2020

September 28th, 2021 by 
PK

Below is a salary percentile calculator for the United States for 2020. Enter pre-tax or gross salary or wage income earned from January - December 2019 and the tool will return the salary percentile. Optionally, compare only to full-time workers who typically work 30+ or 40+ hours per week.

(Math and methodology in our average, median, and top 1% salary post)

After see all forms of income and not just salary in the individual income calculator and household income calculator.

Salary Percentiles for the US Salary Distribution in 2020

In the research post, we developed this graph of the salary or wage percentiles in the United States.

One category is all workers who earned a wage (and worked at least 40 weeks!). The other two also let you see only 'full-time' workers, for your definition: 30+ or 40+ hours in a typical week.

2020 salary percentiles in the United States

What was the median salary in 2020?

In the United States, the median salary was $47,000.00 in 2020.

What was the average salary in 2020?

In the United States, the average salary was $63,409.41 in 2020.

What was the top 1% isalary in 2020?

The United States threshold for a top 1% salary was $320,000.00 in 2020.

In 2020, what was the threshold for the top 10% salary in the United States?

Top 10% of salaries started at $120,000.00 in the United states in 2019.

In 2020, what was the threshold for the top 5% salary in the United States?

Top 5% of individual earnings started at $155,000.00 in the United states in 2020.

How many people made a $50,000 or higher salary in 2020?

62,038,903 workers – around 48.0% of workers – made wage income of $50,000 or more.

How many people made $100,000 or more in 2020?

19,840,408 workers (~15.3% of individual workers) made a six-figure salary.

How many people made $250,000 or more in 2020?

1.84% of the workforce, somewhere around 2,376,527 workers, made a quarter million or more salary in 2020.

How many people made $500,000 or more in 2020?

About 683,141 workers made half a million or more in salary in 2020. That's around .53% of the workforce.

Source and Methodology on the 2020 Salary Percentile Calculator

Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles and J. Robert Warren. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 8.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2020. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V8.0

For methodology, see the salary bracket post.

      

PK

PK started DQYDJ in 2009 to research and discuss finance and investing and help answer financial questions. He's expanded DQYDJ to build visualizations, calculators, and interactive tools.

PK lives in New Hampshire with his wife, kids, and dog.

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