Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals Salary and Pay

The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)

Percentiles answer the question a single average cannot: where would a given Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals offer sit among all 35,420 workers doing this job? The survey top-codes at $239,200+ and withholds unreliable cells, shown as n/p in the table.

Employment and concentration

May 2024 employment stood at 35,420, or 0.02% of the U.S. total. California leads the state table with 5,760 jobs; the top three states sum to 32.5% of the occupation. The concentration measure tells the more interesting story: Wyoming posts a location quotient of 6.56, so a worker there is far more likely to meet a colleague in this field than the national pattern suggests.

One in ten workers in this field earns $27,110 or less, and one in ten earns $51,840 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 1.9 to 1 and the annual gap is $24,730. The mean ($38,580) versus median ($36,150) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.

Pay by state

The state spread for Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals runs from the $48,990 median in Hawaii down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in California (5,760 jobs). The complete table:

The occupation in context

Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals stands number 453 by employment and number 773 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations, the group median wage is $46,710 across 13 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 23% less than its group median, and it supplies 8.0% of the group's 440,980 jobs. In 24 of the 49 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $36,150, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.

Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit

Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is the largest metro employer with 680 jobs, 1.9% of the national total. Two rankings follow across the 131 metros BLS publishes for this occupation: where the jobs are, then where the money is, with the pay ranking restricted to metros employing at least 500 people in this occupation to keep small samples out of the lead.

Largest metro employers

Highest-paying metros (500+ jobs)

At the other end, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX posts the lowest mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs, $37,130 a year, against $40,100 in Kansas City, MO-KS. The lowest-paying large metro and the highest are both real markets for this occupation; the difference between them is the geography premium, or penalty, in cash terms.

What the median pay looks like as a budget

As a household number, $36,150 a year is $3,012 a month gross, $1,390 every two weeks, $695 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($31,220) to the 75th ($44,280) is worth $13,060 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. The next step from a gross figure is a net one: run the $3,012 monthly figure through the paycheck calculator applies your state's taxes, the salary calculator compares two offers in any unit, and the raise vs inflation calculator tells you whether a nominal raise is a real one.

To place a real offer: a salary of $39,765 would sit between the median ($36,150) and the 75th percentile ($44,280), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $31,220, is $4,930 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.

Related occupations in Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations

Compare the ladder above with the closest relatives in the survey: First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers, Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products, Logging Equipment Operators, Agricultural Inspectors, Forest and Conservation Workers, Agricultural Workers, All Other. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.