Economist

Across all employers in the United States, the median wage for Economists — about 17,790 people — is $124,720. Securities and Exchange Commission pays a median base salary of $216,822 for this role, 74% above that figure — about the 85th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 136 of 138 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at Securities and Exchange Commission is $214,634, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

Economist is held in 43 U.S. Federal Government (non-Defense) departments. In Securities and Exchange Commission, the median of $214,634 ranks #2 of 43.

This role is reported in 5 jurisdictions. In U.S. Federal Government (non-Defense), the median of $144,042 ranks #1 of 5. See Economist across all of U.S. Federal Government (non-Defense) →