Data Practitioner Salary Story · BLS OEWS May 2024

How Much Do We Get Paid?

Data Scientist · Data Engineer · Data Analyst · Business Analyst · Data Architect

We are all Data Practitioners.

But the market prices us very differently.

Mehreen Ali Gillani · March 2026

About This Story

Research Question

How much do Data Practitioners get paid — and does it vary by role and state?

We unify five overlapping job titles under one umbrella — Data Practitioner — and compare compensation across roles and geography.

Data Sources

BLS OEWS May 2024
Bureau of Labor Statistics — national and all 50 state averages, percentiles by occupation code.

Kaggle DS Salaries 2020–2021
Individual salary records with experience level and job title — used for experience trends.

Scope & Methodology

① BLS occupation codes mapped to 5 Data Practitioner roles
② State-level averages extracted for all 50 states
③ Roles classified into two salary tiers
④ Suppressed BLS estimates filled with regional neighbor averages
⑤ Experience trends from Kaggle (US only, 2020–2021)

What You Will See

1. Two-tier salary structure across all 5 roles
2. Salary spread — within-role vs between-role gap
3. Geography effect — salary map across all 50 states
4. Role × state matrix — where the premium is largest
5. Key takeaways and actionable findings

The Two-Tier Reality

Two salary tiers exist — but your ceiling matters more than your tier

The Spread Within Roles

Your percentile matters more than your title

The Geography Effect

Where you work shifts salary as much as a full role change

The Role × State Matrix

The technical role premium holds in every high-paying state

Data Practitioner Salary Story · Key Findings

What the Data Tells Us

Finding 1 · Role

Two clear salary tiers

Technical roles (Eng, Arch, Sci) average $125K vs analytical roles (BA, DA) at $109K — a ~$16K gap.

Finding 2 · Seniority

Spread beats the tier gap

Every role has a 100–135% internal spread. A top-10% Data Analyst earns $162K — more than the avg Data Engineer ($127K).

Finding 3 · Geography

Where you work is a multiplier

CA and WA pay Data Scientists 25–31% above the national avg of $125K. Same role — very different paycheck.

Finding 4 · Pattern

The premium never flips

Role hierarchy is consistent across all 50 states — technical roles always lead. Geography shifts all salaries, not the ranking.

Source: BLS OEWS May 2024 · Kaggle DS Salaries · Analysis in Python + Quarto

Title matters. State matters. Seniority matters most.