Salary & Pay
Salary & Pay guides on Careertrailmap.
HVAC Technician Pay Guide: Salary Ranges and Factors
Heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers had a median annual wage of $61,010, or $29.33 an hour, in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimate for May 2025 (BLS, May 2025, as reported by SubcontractorHub, 2025 and Shiftflow, 2025). Half the occupation earns more than that and half earns less — it is a midpoint, not a starting wage.
UX Designer Salary: What to Expect
UX design work is counted by the federal government inside the occupation "Web and Digital Interface Designers," and for that group the median annual wage was $98,540 in May 2023, with the lowest 10 percent under $48,210 and the highest 10 percent above $176,490 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2023). That spread of roughly $128,000 between the bottom and top tenth is the real story: job title alone tells you very little.
Medical Coder Salary: What to Expect
Medical coders are counted by the federal government inside the Medical Records Specialists occupation, which ONET OnLine (2026) notes includes medical coders. That means the headline pay numbers you will see come from two different places: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes a median annual wage for the whole occupation (2025) along with 10th-to-90th percentile estimates (BLS OEWS, May 2023), and AAPC's annual salary survey, which reports averages by credential, by years of experience and by state (AAPC, 2025).
Paralegal vs Legal Assistant Salary: Which Pays More?
In federal wage data, "paralegal" and "legal assistant" are not two jobs — ONET lists "Legal Assistant" as a sample job title inside the single occupation Paralegals and Legal Assistants, SOC 23-2011 (ONET OnLine), the same code the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics uses for paralegal wages. So if an employer uses the two titles interchangeably, the published pay is identical because it comes from one dataset.
Social Worker vs Therapist Salary: Which Pays More?
At the national median, therapists earn slightly more. Marriage and family therapists had a median annual wage of $66,940 in May 2025, while social workers had a median annual wage of $61,780 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025) — a gap of $5,160, or about 8.4 percent. Both figures are medians, not averages.
Bookkeeper Salary: What to Expect
Bookkeepers are paid either an hourly wage or an annual salary, and self-employed bookkeepers bill by the hour, by the month, or per client package. Because of that, the honest answer to "what does a bookkeeper earn" is a range tied to your state, your employer type, and how much of the close you can run without supervision — not a single national number.
How to Negotiate Your Salary as a Registered Nurse
Registered nursing pay is set by a mix of employer type, geography, shift, experience and credentials — the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that earnings within the occupation vary by experience, responsibility, performance, tenure and geographic area (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). That means there is almost always a range attached to any posted role, and the range is where negotiation happens.