These careers had the highest pay bumps, while others fell behind

Annual pay raises can help workers keep up with the rising costs of goods and services in an economy. But when prices increase faster than wages, a pay bump can end up feeling more like a pay cut.

This was the case for many workers over the last few years when inflation dwarfed wage growth. While average earnings went up 5% during that period, inflation exceeded that at 8.58%.

With this in mind, SmartAsset set out to see which professions had the highest salary increases during that 12-month period by analyzing wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 751 occupations.

Key Findings

• Sales professions saw up to a 49% increase in wages year over year. Median wages for sales workers increased from less than $30,000 to over $44,000. At the same time, employment within sales professions dropped just as drastically as pay increased. Many media and music professionals, like DJs, broadcast technicians and composers, also saw large pay increases between 28-35% over the last year, while adding workers.
• Finance jobs see modest wage growth. The median earnings of financial managers – professionals responsible for developing long-term financial goals and directing the investments of their organizations – rose 6.1% between 2021 and 2022 to $139,797. Financial and investment analysts saw wages increase only 3.8% during that time to $95,077, while the earnings of personal financial advisors rose just 1.3% to $95,389.
• Wages taper for these high-paying tech jobs. While the tech sector has boomed in recent years, a number of high-paying computer-oriented jobs recorded more muted earnings growth between 2021 and 2022. The median wage of computer and information systems managers, for example, increased just 3.1% to $164,070 after rising 5.20% a year earlier. Computer hardware engineers ($132,371 per year) saw an even bigger dropoff in earnings growth, as wages rose just 3.2% in 2022 after increasing 7.2% a year earlier.
• Kindergarten, preschool and substitute teachers saw 17% pay increases. All three roles (excluding special education teachers) saw the median wage grow from about $30,000 in 2021 to $35,000 in 2022. Meanwhile, the number of employees in this field increased by 6%.
• Waiters and waitresses get a big pay bump. Earning growth for wait staff outpaced inflation, jumping 12% between 2021 and 2022, while employment grew by nearly 18%. Meanwhile, there were 1.3 million more people working in food preparation and serving occupations in 2022 than in 2021 – the largest addition of workers across all professions.