A percentile is a position in the BLS distribution. It is not a promised offer or career forecast.
10th
$37,130
25th
$44,340
Median
$48,070
75th
$58,090
90th
$62,250
National context
What changes around the median
Dental Assistants ranked 5 of 17 detailed healthcare support occupations with a published annual median. The national annual mean was 4.4% above the median, showing why one center point does not describe the full distribution.
Area estimates below use the same SOC code and release. They do not adjust for cost of living, experience, benefits, hours, employer mix, or remote-work policy.
Published metro rows
Highest medians for Dental Assistants
Ranked only among metros with a published annual median. No cost-of-living adjustment.
Use the published range, job count, place pattern, and survey limits as separate facts. The guide stays tied to SOC 31-9091 and the May 2025 BLS release.
Questions, answered
Dental Assistants: common wage questions
What is the median wage for Dental Assistants?
The May 2025 BLS OEWS release published a U.S. median of $48,070 per year for Dental Assistants. It is an occupation estimate, not a promised offer or an individual's pay.
How many Dental Assistants jobs does BLS estimate nationally?
BLS published an employment estimate of 387,790 wage and salary jobs. The estimate is not a count of current openings and excludes the self-employed.
Why is the mean wage different from the median for Dental Assistants?
The published annual mean is 4.4% above the median. The mean uses every published wage value, while the median marks the middle of the distribution.
Which metro has the highest published median for Dental Assistants?
From market data to your evidence
Tailor for a real Dental Assistants job, not a generic wage number.
Pick an eligible listing, then MeritLog can help you prepare from experience you have confirmed. WageScope never turns a BLS estimate into a qualification or résumé claim.
The May 2025 BLS OEWS estimate puts the U.S. median for Dental Assistants at $48,070 per year. Median means the middle. Half of the wage values used for this estimate fall below that point. Half fall above it. The median is not one worker's pay. It is not a job offer. It is one clear mark for the middle of a broad national pay range.
BLS also lists 387,790 wage and salary jobs for Dental Assistants. That count covers jobs in the survey's scope. It does not count open job ads. It also leaves out people who work for themselves. The wage and job counts share the same May 2025 reference point, so they can be read together without mixing time periods.
The Dental Assistants mean of $50,200 per year is 4.4% above the $48,070 median on the same published median. Mean means BLS adds the wage values and divides the total by the number of jobs behind the estimate. A gap between mean and median shows that the shape is not even. It does not explain the cause of the gap.
BLS names this record Dental Assistants and gives it SOC 31-9091. The two-part code is the stable key for this page. A role with a close name keeps a different code, wage row, job count, and area pattern. WageScope never joins two SOC records because their words sound alike.
For SOC 31-9091, the U.S. row reports 387,790 wage and salary jobs. Its annual median is $48,070 per year. Its matching mean is $50,200 per year. These facts come from one national row and one May 2025 release.
The same SOC 31-9091 appears in 53 state or territory rows, 388 metro rows, and 136 nonmetro rows in this artifact. A missing local row stays missing. The national record does not fill it, and a nearby SOC does not stand in for it.
Read the Dental Assistants wage ladder from low to high
The 10th percentile is $37,130 per year. The 25th percentile is $44,340 per year. The median is $48,070 per year. The 75th percentile is $58,090 per year. The 90th percentile is $62,250 per year. Each point marks a place in the same national wage spread.
A percentile is a rank point. It is not a career step. For example, the 10th percentile means 10% of wage values are at or below that mark. It does not mean a new worker starts there. The 90th percentile means 90% are at or below that mark. It does not mean a worker can reach it after a set number of years.
The middle half runs from $44,340 to $58,090 per year. That span is $13,750. The full 10th-to-90th span is $25,120. These spans show why one median cannot stand in for every Dental Assistants job.
What the gaps around the Dental Assistants median show
The median is 29.5% above the 10th percentile. The 90th percentile is 29.5% above the median. The two sides do not have to match. A wider upper side can pull the mean up. A wider lower side can pull it down. The data shows the shape, but not the reason for that shape.
The 25th-to-median step is $3,730 per year. The median-to-75th step is $10,020 per year. These two steps give a closer look at the middle half. They are often more useful than a single top-to-bottom gap because they keep the center in view.
Use this ladder as a fact check when you read a job post. A posted range can sit below, near, or above these BLS marks. That does not make the post wrong. A job may differ by place, hours, level, field, employer, or work rules. Keep the posted range tied to that listing. Keep the BLS range tied to the whole occupation.
Metro areas with the highest published Dental Assistants medians
WageScope found 388 metro rows with the same published annual median for Dental Assistants. It sorts only those rows. It does not fill a blank row. It does not turn a blank into zero. The first six rows below have the highest published medians in this release. The list is a wage rank, not a rank of places to live or work.
The first row is San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, at $74,600 per year. The middle metro row by published pay is Columbia, MO, at $46,920 per year. That middle metro mark gives one more check on how far the top rows sit from a common place in the set.
These are nominal wages. Nominal means the dollar amount shown in the source. This list does not adjust for local price levels. It also does not tell us how many openings an area has now. Use a local page to see price-level context when an exact BEA row exists. Use the separate job block to inspect current employer-title matches.
1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has a Dental Assistants median of $74,600 per year, or $26,530 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. BLS lists 2,870 jobs there, against 387,790 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.01.
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI has a Dental Assistants median of $72,370 per year, or $24,300 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. BLS lists 3,910 jobs there, against 387,790 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.8.
Job count
Metro areas with the largest Dental Assistants job estimates
A large wage can appear in a small job market. A large job market can have a lower wage. That is why WageScope keeps pay and job count in separate views. The six rows below have the largest published employment estimates for Dental Assistants among metro rows in this release. Employment means the number of wage and salary jobs in scope. It does not mean open roles.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has the largest listed metro estimate in this set, at 21,090 jobs. Its median is $46,900 per year. Compare that with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, which leads the published median list. The leaders may match, or they may not. Each list answers a different question.
Job count can help you see the scale of a local labor market. It cannot show churn, new hiring, job quality, remote work, or the chance that one person will get hired. Current listings add a second view, but they are a dated sample of posts. WageScope never turns the listing count into a demand score.
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has 21,090 estimated Dental Assistants jobs, or 5.4% of the national 387,790 job estimate. Its median is $46,900 per year, or $1,170 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. Its location quotient is 1.35.
Local share
Where Dental Assistants has a larger share of local jobs
Location quotient is a share check. A value of 1 means the role has the same share of local jobs as it has across the nation. A value above 1 means the local share is larger. A value below 1 means the local share is smaller. It is not a count. It is not a wage. It does not say that a place is growing.
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ has the highest published location quotient in this bounded metro set, at 2.62. The same row lists 370 jobs and a median of $47,070 per year. Reading all three values keeps a high share from being mistaken for a large market or high pay.
A small area can have a high location quotient because the role makes up a large part of a small local job base. A large area can have many workers and a lower quotient. Use the quotient to ask where the role is common in the mix. Use employment to ask how many jobs BLS estimated. Use the wage fields to ask what the published pay range looks like.
1. Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ has a Dental Assistants location quotient of 2.62. BLS lists 370 jobs and a median of $47,070 per year, or $1,000 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. The U.S. job estimate is 387,790.
2. Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT has a Dental Assistants location quotient of 2.16. BLS lists 1,640 jobs and a median of $36,580 per year, or $11,490 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. The U.S. job estimate is 387,790.
SOC family
How Dental Assistants sits in Healthcare Support
Dental Assistants is SOC 31-9091. BLS places it in the Healthcare Support major group. Among 17 detailed roles in that group with a published annual median, Dental Assistants ranks 5 of 17 by median. This is a pay rank inside one source family. It is not a rank of skill, value, status, or career fit.
The closest same-family medians help set a fair peer frame. They do not claim that the work is the same. Official SOC titles can cover different tasks and settings. WageScope uses the family only because BLS publishes that link. It does not infer a career move, a skill match, or a hiring path from the wage gap.
Use these peer rows to spot whether the $48,070 median sits near many family roles or far from them. Then open a role's own page before using its number. Each role has a different code, job count, wage spread, and place pattern. One family label does not erase those facts.
1. Healthcare Support Workers, All Other, SOC 31-9099, has a U.S. median of $48,430 per year. Its gap from Dental Assistants is $360 per year.
2. Medical Equipment Preparers, SOC 31-9093, has a U.S. median of $47,700 per year. Its gap from Dental Assistants is $370 per year.
3. Medical Assistants, SOC 31-9092, has a U.S. median of $45,690 per year. Its gap from Dental Assistants is $2,380 per year.
Data care
How much care to use with the Dental Assistants estimate
BLS marks the employment relative standard error at 0.9%. It marks the mean-wage relative standard error at 0.4%. A relative standard error, or RSE, is a survey precision flag. A smaller RSE often means less sampling uncertainty. It is not the chance that one worker's pay is right or wrong.
The employment RSE applies to the 387,790 job estimate. The mean-wage RSE applies to the published mean of $50,200 per year. These fields do not give a matching RSE for the median or each percentile. WageScope shows the fields BLS published and does not move one RSE to another measure.
Survey values can change when BLS updates its methods, sample, models, or source year. That is why this page keeps May 2025 in view. A later release can replace these facts only after MeritLog pins the new official files, checks the rows, and reviews the page again. A changed number is not treated as a correction unless the source says so.
A simple way to compare Dental Assistants across places
First, compare the same wage metric. Use annual with annual or hourly with hourly. Next, check the source date. Keep May 2025 BLS rows together. Then read employment and location quotient beside pay. This stops a high median from standing in for market size or local share. Last, add BEA price-level context only when the exact place has an approved row.
A state, metro, and nonmetro area are not the same kind of map. Do not rank them in one list without saying so. WageScope groups like with like. It also keeps a national row as a broad bench mark. A local page can show the local row, its state row when that link is exact, and the U.S. row without blending them.
If a value is blank, keep it blank. If BLS marks a top code, read it as a lower bound. Do not fill a blank from a nearby place. Do not turn a wage gap into a claim about taxes, hours, benefits, work rules, or a household budget. Those facts are not in the OEWS row.
Move from Dental Assistants wage data to one real listing
The job block on this page uses a strict employer-title match for Dental Assistants. It may show fewer rows than the full MeritLog job search. That is on purpose. A false negative is safer here than a job card for a different role. Each card keeps its employer, place, source, and seen date. The cards do not change the BLS wage data.
Open one listing and read its own pay, work place, level, and needs. Compare its posted range with the BLS spread only as context. A posted range is set by an employer for one role. The BLS range is a survey view across many jobs. Neither source proves that a person is fit for the work.
When you tailor a résumé, use work facts you can back up. Do not turn $48,070 into a skill or result. Do not copy a BLS job count into your work history. MeritLog can help shape confirmed experience for a chosen listing. The wage page stays public and read only. It does not save a job or create a résumé on page load.
This page does not say what one Dental Assistants worker earns. It does not promise that a job pays the median. It does not state a starting wage. It does not explain why the mean and median differ. It does not add benefits, tips, stock, bonus pay, taxes, or work hours unless BLS includes them in the published wage measure.
The page does not count people who work for themselves. It does not turn 387,790 into current openings. It does not read private MeritLog jobs or Career Memory. MeritLog does not use the page to build a private career profile. While public analytics are on, GA4, Ahrefs, and Meta may receive the public page URL; Your Privacy Choices or Global Privacy Control turns that off. The page does not send its text to a model.
The best use is narrow and clear. Read the May 2025 BLS wage range. Check how the role changes by place. Add the separate 2024 BEA price level when an exact row exists. Inspect a dated employer-title match. Then make a résumé choice from facts you have confirmed. Keep each source tied to the question it can answer.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has the highest annual median among the metro rows with a published value on this page, at $74,600. This is a nominal BLS estimate with no price-level adjustment.
Are the current job listings included in the BLS wage calculation?
No. MeritLog shows eligible live public-catalog listings separately, with their own source and observation date. Posted pay never changes the official BLS distribution.
3. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has a Dental Assistants median of $64,390 per year, or $16,320 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. BLS lists 7,530 jobs there, against 387,790 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.27.
4. Rochester, MN has a Dental Assistants median of $63,450 per year, or $15,380 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. BLS lists 320 jobs there, against 387,790 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.05.
5. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA has a Dental Assistants median of $62,040 per year, or $13,970 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. BLS lists 7,100 jobs there, against 387,790 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.37.
6. Portland-South Portland, ME has a Dental Assistants median of $61,240 per year, or $13,170 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. BLS lists 830 jobs there, against 387,790 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.16.
2. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has 20,870 estimated Dental Assistants jobs, or 5.4% of the national 387,790 job estimate. Its median is $48,430 per year, or $360 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. Its location quotient is 0.88.
3. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN has 10,490 estimated Dental Assistants jobs, or 2.7% of the national 387,790 job estimate. Its median is $48,950 per year, or $880 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. Its location quotient is 0.93.
4. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL has 9,180 estimated Dental Assistants jobs, or 2.4% of the national 387,790 job estimate. Its median is $47,860 per year, or $210 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. Its location quotient is 1.31.
5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX has 9,010 estimated Dental Assistants jobs, or 2.3% of the national 387,790 job estimate. Its median is $47,570 per year, or $500 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. Its location quotient is 0.89.
6. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV has 8,440 estimated Dental Assistants jobs, or 2.2% of the national 387,790 job estimate. Its median is $47,540 per year, or $530 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. Its location quotient is 1.08.
3. St. George, UT has a Dental Assistants location quotient of 2.02. BLS lists 460 jobs and a median of $36,350 per year, or $11,720 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. The U.S. job estimate is 387,790.
4. Yakima, WA has a Dental Assistants location quotient of 2. BLS lists 480 jobs and a median of $46,670 per year, or $1,400 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. The U.S. job estimate is 387,790.
5. Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA has a Dental Assistants location quotient of 1.99. BLS lists 470 jobs and a median of $49,800 per year, or $1,730 above the U.S. Dental Assistants median. The U.S. job estimate is 387,790.
6. Arecibo, PR has a Dental Assistants location quotient of 1.91. BLS lists 170 jobs and a median of $35,100 per year, or $12,970 below the U.S. Dental Assistants median. The U.S. job estimate is 387,790.
Precise employer-title matches for Dental Assistants
Matched from employer-posted title terms, not a BLS classification. Confirm the listing's location because this occupation-wide set is not a U.S. place filter. A posted range never changes the official distribution above.
