Terms of Service

Last updated: June 11, 2026

The short version: Official Salary is a free salary research tool. The numbers come from government data and are meant to help you research — not to be treated as a guarantee of what any employer will pay. Use them as a starting point, not a contract.

1. What Official Salary Is

Official Salary is a free salary data tool. We query publicly available government data — primarily the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program and World Bank open data — and display it in a searchable, readable format. No registration is required. No personal data is collected.

By using Official Salary, you agree to these terms. If anything here conflicts with how you need to use the site, email us at legal@officialsalary.com before proceeding.

2. What the Data Is Good For

Salary figures on Official Salary are appropriate for:

✓Personal salary research — understanding what the market pays for a role in a specific city
✓Salary negotiation preparation — the 75th percentile figure is a defensible negotiation anchor based on BLS data
✓Editorial and research references — citing BLS-sourced figures in articles, reports, or presentations (with attribution to BLS)
✓Educational purposes — teaching compensation concepts, labor economics, career planning

3. What the Data Is Not

Median salary figures are population-level statistics, not predictions about any individual employer or job offer. A figure of $130,000/yr for a software engineer in San Francisco does not mean that any specific company pays that, or that you will receive that offer. Individual salaries vary based on:

Years of experience and specialisation
Education level and certifications
Employer size, stage, and funding
Equity and total compensation structure
Individual negotiation outcome
Remote vs on-site arrangements

Official Salary salary figures are not financial advice, employment offers, or compensation guarantees. Always verify salary information through additional sources before making major career or financial decisions.

4. Data Attribution Requirements

The underlying data has attribution requirements that pass through to anyone who publishes Official Salary-derived figures:

BLS data (US salaries)

Public domain — no attribution required by law, but good practice is: "Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics"

World Bank data (international cities)

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution required: "World Bank, GDP per capita, PPP (current international $), NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD, data.worldbank.org"

If you publish salary figures derived from Official Salary and want to be correct about sourcing, cite BLS directly rather than citing Official Salary — our methodology page shows which BLS series IDs to reference.

5. What You Cannot Do

You may not use Official Salary to:

✗Scrape or bulk-download salary data for commercial redistribution — the underlying government data is free and public; access it directly from BLS and World Bank instead
✗Represent our adjusted figures as official, unmodified BLS or World Bank data — our figures are derived and adjusted, not raw government output
✗Use the site in any manner that violates applicable law in your jurisdiction

6. Advertising Disclosure

Official Salary displays Google AdSense advertisements. All paid placements are clearly labeled "Advertisement" or "Sponsored." We do not accept sponsored salary data or paid placements in salary results. The salary figures you see are not influenced by advertisers.

Official Salary may also include affiliate links to relevant products or services (such as career courses, books, or job boards). These are marked where required by FTC guidelines. Clicking an affiliate link may result in a commission paid to Official Salary at no additional cost to you.

7. Accuracy and Availability

We make a genuine effort to keep salary data accurate and up to date — the site queries BLS and World Bank APIs automatically every 24 hours. However, we do not warrant that all data is complete, current, or error-free. If you find an error, please report it to data@officialsalary.com. We take corrections seriously and have updated our SOC mappings based on user reports.

Official Salary is provided "as is." We are not liable for decisions made based on salary figures displayed on this site. The figures are a research starting point, not a binding reference.

8. Changes to These Terms

If we make material changes to these terms, the "last updated" date at the top of this page will change. We will not retroactively change terms in ways that harm users. Continued use of Official Salary after a terms update means you accept the revised terms.

9. Contact

General questions: data@officialsalary.com
Legal / terms questions: legal@officialsalary.com
Privacy questions: privacy@officialsalary.com