Airline Pilots Lead US Non-Healthcare Pay at $288,650, Ahead of CEOs at $269,630
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Jun 22
Airline Pilots Lead US Non-Healthcare Pay at $288,650, Ahead of CEOs at $269,630
1 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Jun 22
Summary
$288,650 was the average annual wage for airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers in May 2025, making them the highest-paid non-healthcare job in new BLS data.
The ranking isolates careers outside medicine because healthcare dominates the overall top pay list, with pediatric surgeons averaging about $500,000.
$269,630 for chief executives and $206,180 for athletes and sports competitors rounded out the top three non-healthcare roles.
Management jobs filled much of the rest of the top 20, including computer and information systems managers at $192,160 and financial managers at $186,910.
Employment levels varied sharply across the list, from 841,710 financial managers and 754,500 lawyers to just 790 industrial-organizational psychologists.