Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists Average Salary in United States
$89,203 average · $89,790 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 13-1161What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists in United States, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
How much do Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists make in United States?
The average market research analysts and marketing specialists salary in United States is $89,203 per year, with a median of $89,790. That works out to about $42.89 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 4,666,320 market research analysts and marketing specialists jobs in United States.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $89,790. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $71,380; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $104,380 — a 46% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Business and Financial Operations Careers Are Structured
Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how market research analysts and marketing specialists pay is distributed in United States specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
Entry typically requires a bachelor's degree, but the field is unusually open to career-changers because the core skills — analysis, communication, process discipline — transfer across industries. Early-career workers should weight employers by what they teach: two years in a rigorous environment moves you up this distribution faster than five in a lax one.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists Do?
Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists positions belong to the business and financial operations field. Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 13-1161
Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists pay in United States
In United States, market research analysts and marketing specialists report a median of $89,790 and an average of $89,203 (about $42.89/hour) across roughly 4,666,320 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $71,380 at the 10th percentile to $104,380 at the 90th.
National figures average across high-cost coastal metros and lower-cost inland markets, so individual state pages on Wage Atlas are usually the better reference for a specific offer.
Income reality check
The median salary for Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists in United States of $89,790 falls in the Comfortable band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~7% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Market Research Analysts And Marketing Specialists in Other States
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