In this post are United States Salary Brackets by Age for 2026, including a calculator for you to zoom into any age and percentile. You'll also find salary by age percentiles, plus average salary by age, median, and top 1% in an easy-to-scroll format.
Salaries/wage incomes are gross (pre-tax), earned between January and December 2025 (the US Census Bureau's Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) was conducted in early 2026).
Salary by age calculator
Salary benchmarks by age in 2026
Age is a great proxy for experience in most datasets – generally, the longer you've been at a job or career, the better you are in that job or career. While that's not a universal law, it's good practice to separate salary data by age. (Although you can find aggregate salary averages and stats here).
The best summary statistics for salary are median salary by age, average salary by age, and top 1% salary by age. We'll hit each summary statistic in kind.
(Find the methodology below, and the full salary screen in the salary statistics post. Find all income by age data alternatively.)
What is the median salary by age in the United States?
The following table lists the median salary for every age from 18-70 in the United States for 2026:
| Age | Median Salary |
| 18 | $15,000 |
| 19 | $20,000 |
| 20 | $25,000 |
| 21 | $25,000 |
| 22 | $30,000 |
| 23 | $37,600 |
| 24 | $40,000 |
| 25 | $48,000 |
| 26 | $50,000 |
| 27 | $50,792 |
| 28 | $55,000 |
| 29 | $60,000 |
| 30 | $57,000 |
| 31 | $60,000 |
| 32 | $60,000 |
| 33 | $60,000 |
| 34 | $63,902 |
| 35 | $66,000 |
| 36 | $68,000 |
| 37 | $69,500 |
| 38 | $74,000 |
| 39 | $70,000 |
| 40 | $70,000 |
| 41 | $70,000 |
| 42 | $70,000 |
| 43 | $72,000 |
| 44 | $70,000 |
| 45 | $71,000 |
| 46 | $70,000 |
| 47 | $72,000 |
| 48 | $70,588 |
| 49 | $70,000 |
| 50 | $70,000 |
| 51 | $70,000 |
| 52 | $70,000 |
| 53 | $67,000 |
| 54 | $65,000 |
| 55 | $70,000 |
| 56 | $65,000 |
| 57 | $70,000 |
| 58 | $68,500 |
| 59 | $65,000 |
| 60 | $61,000 |
| 61 | $65,000 |
| 62 | $66,000 |
| 63 | $60,000 |
| 64 | $65,000 |
| 65 | $58,000 |
| 66 | $57,000 |
| 67 | $55,000 |
| 68 | $50,000 |
| 69 | $50,100 |
| 70 | $45,000 |
What is the average salary by age in the United States?
In full year 2025 in the United States (remember: 2026 survey), these were the average salaries earned by age:
| Age | Average Salary |
| 18 | $22,018 |
| 19 | $28,988 |
| 20 | $30,411 |
| 21 | $29,941 |
| 22 | $38,753 |
| 23 | $43,061 |
| 24 | $47,368 |
| 25 | $55,754 |
| 26 | $56,807 |
| 27 | $62,152 |
| 28 | $64,673 |
| 29 | $69,637 |
| 30 | $74,208 |
| 31 | $82,226 |
| 32 | $82,728 |
| 33 | $75,863 |
| 34 | $85,152 |
| 35 | $82,757 |
| 36 | $85,452 |
| 37 | $90,079 |
| 38 | $95,197 |
| 39 | $96,703 |
| 40 | $97,431 |
| 41 | $97,502 |
| 42 | $93,677 |
| 43 | $102,244 |
| 44 | $99,445 |
| 45 | $92,927 |
| 46 | $95,341 |
| 47 | $101,366 |
| 48 | $105,528 |
| 49 | $99,277 |
| 50 | $100,616 |
| 51 | $99,198 |
| 52 | $96,879 |
| 53 | $92,064 |
| 54 | $100,891 |
| 55 | $96,328 |
| 56 | $93,363 |
| 57 | $91,907 |
| 58 | $105,084 |
| 59 | $96,272 |
| 60 | $84,889 |
| 61 | $88,735 |
| 62 | $91,306 |
| 63 | $78,416 |
| 64 | $84,428 |
| 65 | $75,541 |
| 66 | $80,402 |
| 67 | $82,151 |
| 68 | $72,274 |
| 69 | $67,394 |
| 70 | $78,903 |
What is the top 1% salary by age in the United States?
Here are the summary top 1% salary benchmarks in the US in full year 2025.
Remember to be appropriately skeptical with top 1% salaries – look at ages 48 and 59! By definition, fewer people earn up here and the distribution isn't as well behaved. Look up and down a few years to get a feel for the 'actual' amount.
| Age | Top 1% Salary |
| 18 | $94,000 |
| 19 | $176,000 |
| 20 | $115,000 |
| 21 | $98,000 |
| 22 | $165,000 |
| 23 | $140,000 |
| 24 | $155,000 |
| 25 | $180,000 |
| 26 | $195,000 |
| 27 | $200,000 |
| 28 | $220,000 |
| 29 | $250,000 |
| 30 | $350,000 |
| 31 | $400,000 |
| 32 | $400,000 |
| 33 | $300,000 |
| 34 | $380,000 |
| 35 | $330,000 |
| 36 | $400,000 |
| 37 | $425,000 |
| 38 | $580,000 |
| 39 | $560,000 |
| 40 | $800,000 |
| 41 | $500,000 |
| 42 | $500,000 |
| 43 | $650,000 |
| 44 | $450,000 |
| 45 | $510,000 |
| 46 | $600,000 |
| 47 | $600,000 |
| 48 | $1,000,000 |
| 49 | $520,000 |
| 50 | $650,000 |
| 51 | $600,000 |
| 52 | $620,000 |
| 53 | $500,000 |
| 54 | $750,000 |
| 55 | $540,000 |
| 56 | $580,000 |
| 57 | $450,000 |
| 58 | $880,000 |
| 59 | $1,099,999 |
| 60 | $500,000 |
| 61 | $640,000 |
| 62 | $480,000 |
| 63 | $350,000 |
| 64 | $360,000 |
| 65 | $400,002 |
| 66 | $600,000 |
| 67 | $363,000 |
| 68 | $400,000 |
| 69 | $300,000 |
| 70 | $500,000 |
Again, look at a few adjacent ages to get a 'feel' – don't take one age as the correct value. (For what that's worth!)
Income vs. salary
Salary is what you earn from a job, your wage income. Income is a much more expansive set of ways to earn money. Here, think: business, investment, interest, rent, etc.
We specialize in income here on DQYDJ – find all our recent income posts here. (Including household income and individual income).
Salary by age summary for the United States in 2026
Previously, I split this post into two – a calculator and a research post. Income is a better proxy, though, and I've since merged the two. Here are the previous years:
Methodology on 2026 United States salary brackets
This data comes from the United States Census Bureau's ASEC survey from September 2026.
Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, J. Robert Warren, Daniel Backman, Etienne Breton, Grace Cooper, Julia A. Rivera Drew, Stephanie Richards, David Van Riper, and Kari C.W. Williams. IPUMS CPS: Version 13.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2025. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V13.0
Here is an estimate of the number of salaried workers in each age group, along with the sample count:
| Age | Estimated Salaried Workforce | Samples |
| 18 | 796,028 | 356 |
| 19 | 1,188,089 | 476 |
| 20 | 1,692,467 | 566 |
| 21 | 1,967,592 | 626 |
| 22 | 2,089,563 | 669 |
| 23 | 2,409,433 | 747 |
| 24 | 2,833,120 | 850 |
| 25 | 3,120,279 | 982 |
| 26 | 3,020,512 | 940 |
| 27 | 3,302,161 | 1,005 |
| 28 | 3,376,087 | 1,078 |
| 29 | 3,512,258 | 1,139 |
| 30 | 3,236,990 | 1,169 |
| 31 | 3,303,949 | 1,225 |
| 32 | 3,179,357 | 1,219 |
| 33 | 3,241,423 | 1,253 |
| 34 | 3,530,473 | 1,332 |
| 35 | 3,429,778 | 1,333 |
| 36 | 3,326,598 | 1,337 |
| 37 | 3,051,132 | 1,270 |
| 38 | 3,218,842 | 1,327 |
| 39 | 3,410,875 | 1,366 |
| 40 | 3,241,974 | 1,343 |
| 41 | 3,097,691 | 1,339 |
| 42 | 3,158,126 | 1,342 |
| 43 | 3,097,503 | 1,333 |
| 44 | 2,753,944 | 1,209 |
| 45 | 2,969,881 | 1,320 |
| 46 | 2,929,441 | 1,258 |
| 47 | 2,898,808 | 1,225 |
| 48 | 2,679,224 | 1,131 |
| 49 | 2,629,169 | 1,130 |
| 50 | 2,686,129 | 1,131 |
| 51 | 2,579,772 | 1,075 |
| 52 | 2,366,811 | 953 |
| 53 | 2,615,616 | 1,018 |
| 54 | 2,569,526 | 1,029 |
| 55 | 2,627,264 | 1,022 |
| 56 | 2,417,632 | 952 |
| 57 | 2,466,781 | 922 |
| 58 | 2,259,525 | 854 |
| 59 | 2,301,809 | 868 |
| 60 | 2,147,690 | 828 |
| 61 | 2,151,224 | 825 |
| 62 | 1,989,886 | 784 |
| 63 | 1,958,986 | 748 |
| 64 | 1,652,827 | 634 |
| 65 | 1,432,396 | 556 |
| 66 | 1,047,588 | 442 |
| 67 | 926,929 | 394 |
| 68 | 790,191 | 341 |
| 69 | 683,712 | 282 |
| 70 | 637,824 | 252 |
What is your screen?
Check out United States Salary Stats post to find our 'salary' screen – and, again, it's more aggressive than our income screens in our other posts.
