Table 2. Sixteen high-paying full-time(1) occupations that entered or left the top 20 ranking, National Compensation Survey, 1997 and 2005
Occupations in top 20 in 1997, but not in 2005 (average hourly earnings of $34.36 or more) 1997 ranking Occupations in top 20 in 2005, but not in 1997 (average hourly earnings of $44.49 or more) 2005 ranking 2005 data 1997 Mean hourly earnings
Hourly earnings(2) Mean weekly hours
Mean Relative error(3)

Musicians and composers

 5 Engineering teachers 5 $60.62 10.6 41.2 $33.92

Natural science teachers, n.e.c.

 9 Earth, environmental, and marine science teachers 9 52.72 13.5 39.6 32.00

Theology teachers

 10 Sociology teachers 13 49.58 15.6 39.1 32.68

Physicists and astronomers

 13 Business, commerce, and marketing teachers 15 46.19 13.0 38.9 32.89

Petroleum engineers

 15 English teachers 16 45.89 11.0 37.8 31.40

Securities and financial services sales

 16 Pharmacists 18 45.25 1.1 39.7 26.59

Chemistry teachers

 17 Social science teachers, n.e.c. 19 44.68 5.9 39.7 32.93

Real estate sales

 20 Biological science teachers 20 44.49 10.5 40.6 32.50

Footnotes:
(1) Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition used by each establishment.
(2) Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of workers, weighted by hours.
(3) The relative standard error (RSE) is the standard error expressed as a percent of the estimate. It can be used to calculate a "confidence interval" around a sample estimate. For more information about RSEs, see National Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages in the United States, June 2005, Bulletin 2581 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 2006), Appendix A, "Technical Note," pp. 154–55.

NOTE: n.e.c. = not elsewhere classified