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UX Designer Salary & Rate Database
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UX Designer Salary & Rate Database

Every figure on this page is sourced and linked — official BLS wage data. Includes a calculator to estimate your own range.
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National Wage Data — Official BLS Figures (May 2024)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has no dedicated "UX Designer" occupation code. The closest official classification is SOC 15-1255, "Web and Digital Interface Designers"— it captures UX, UI, and interaction designers, but also includes general web design work, which pulls the aggregate below what most Staff+ product designers earn. Every figure below is verified against BLS's own published national wage table.

Percentile

Annual

Hourly

10th

$47,840

$23.00

25th

$64,990

$31.25

50th (Median)

$98,090

$47.16

75th

$141,860

$68.20

90th

$192,180

$92.39

Mean (average)

$111,450

$53.58

Source:BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1 — National employment and wage data, May 2024, SOC 15-1255. Total employment: 111,400. The $144,340 gap between 10th and 90th percentile is one of the widest of any design-related occupation — reflecting the premium technology companies pay senior product designers versus entry-level web designers at smaller firms.

Metric

Value

Total employment (2024)

128,900

Projected employment (2034)

137,900

Projected growth 2024–2034

+7.0%— faster than the 5.4% all-occupation average

Annual openings (avg.)

9,100

Self-employed share

10.1% of total employment

Total separation rate

6.1%/yr (2.4% exit field, 3.7% transfer occupations)

Source:BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034— employment counts and growth projections run on a separate, longer publication cycle than annual wage data and remain BLS's most current projection set.

Salary Calculator

Estimate a market range usingofficial BLS data only. All three inputs map directly to published government figures — no proprietary datasets, no invented multipliers. Every number in the result traces back to a BLS table you can open and check yourself.
Estimated Annual Base Salary
$0
 
National figure for your level (BLS)—
State adjustment vs. national median—
Industry adjustment vs. national median—
Adjusted estimate—
How this is calculated: your selected BLS national percentile, multiplied by your state's BLS median ÷ national median, and by your industry's BLS median ÷ national median. All inputs are published figures for SOC 15-1255 — percentiles and state medians from BLS OEWS, industry medians from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Combining state and industry: BLS does not publish a combined state-by-industry breakdown for this occupation, so those two adjustments are applied independently. Because a state's median already partly reflects its industry mix, selecting both may overstate the result. Treat one adjustment as the more reliable signal and the combination as an upper bound.

Work arrangement: deliberately omitted. BLS does not publish wage estimates by remote, hybrid, or on-site status, so any remote adjustment would be invented rather than sourced.

What no government survey captures: OEWS measures base wages only — it excludes equity, bonuses, and sign-on, which at Staff+ level in big tech are often the larger share of total compensation. This gives you a defensible floor anchored in official data, not a total-comp prediction.

Salary By

BLS doesn't break out compensation by job title or seniority, so these bands map BLS percentile data to typical career stages. Treat them as interpretation of official data, not official data itself.
Career Level
US State
Industry

Level

NYC / SF

Remote US

Practitioner note

Mid-Level Product Designer

$110k – $145k

$90k – $120k

Roughly maps to the BLS 50th–75th percentile ($98,090–$141,860). Wide range depends heavily on company stage.

Senior Product Designer

$150k – $190k

$125k – $160k

Sits in the upper 75th–90th percentile band; AI-product scope tends toward the top of this range.

Staff Product Designer

$190k – $240k

$160k – $200k

Assumes IC track; lower bound aligns with the BLS 90th percentile ($192,180).

Principal Product Designer

$230k – $300k+

$195k – $260k

Above BLS's published 90th percentile — equity becomes the larger share of total comp here. See thePortfolio Directoryfor real Staff+ examples.

Percentile anchors: BLS OEWS May 2024, SOC 15-1255. Figures reflect base salary. Government wage surveys exclude equity, so actual total compensation at Staff+ level commonly runs meaningfully higher than any figure shown here.

Rank

State

Median Wage (2025)

Employment (2024)

1

California

$130,240

27,210

2

Washington

$126,960

7,840

3

New York

$121,700

14,840

4

Rhode Island

$111,200

350

5

Massachusetts

$107,560

2,690

6

Hawaii

$105,560

70

7

Colorado

$103,990

2,740

8

Georgia

$100,530

3,070

9

Utah

$99,300

1,140

10

Vermont

$99,160

**

11

Oregon

$98,970

1,350

12

Connecticut

$96,200

1,040

13

Illinois

$94,660

2,140

14

South Dakota

$94,630

70

15

District of Columbia

$91,820

660

16

Maryland

$89,680

1,350

17

Texas

$89,630

7,360

18

Ohio

$88,170

1,940

19

Montana

$87,660

140

20

New Jersey

$87,070

2,450

21

Maine

$86,230

230

22

North Carolina

$84,990

3,360

23

Minnesota

$84,950

1,510

24

Oklahoma

$83,640

360

25

Nevada

$81,230

750

26

Michigan

$81,120

1,800

27

Wisconsin

$80,210

850

28

Arizona

$78,330

1,430

29

Missouri

$76,320

1,360

30

Florida

$75,480

4,140

31

Kansas

$73,640

380

32

Iowa

$72,820

620

33

West Virginia

$72,630

110

34

New Hampshire

$72,200

310

35

Delaware

$71,490

200

36

South Carolina

$70,690

470

37

Indiana

$70,550

1,390

38

Alaska

$69,190

50

39

Idaho

$67,260

390

40

Virginia

$66,240

2,740

41

Kentucky

$66,190

400

42

North Dakota

$64,390

40

43

Louisiana

$62,700

180

44

Nebraska

$62,700

830

45

Tennessee

$61,590

3,470

46

Pennsylvania

$61,030

4,080

47

Mississippi

$60,680

150

48

New Mexico

$57,680

280

49

Arkansas

$57,020

470

50

Wyoming

$51,320

110

50

Alabama

$49,770

130

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024, SOC 15-1255 — state-level estimates. ** = employment not disclosed (BLS small-sample suppression). California and Washington together employ over 35,000 designers in this occupation — roughly a third of the US total. States reporting under 100 workers (Hawaii, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska) should be read cautiously; small samples produce volatile estimates.

Industry

BLS Median Wage

vs. National Median

Employed Designers

Finance & insurance

$121,710

+24.1%

5%

Computer systems design & related services

$98,610

+0.5%

12%(largest employer)

All industries (national median)

$98,090

—

100%

Advertising, PR & related services

$74,510

−24.0%

4%

Retail trade

$69,280

−29.4%

4%

Self-employed / freelance

Not published

—

10%

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Web Developers and Digital Designers" — Pay and Work Environment sections, May 2024 wage data. BLS publishes industry medians only for the industries employing the most workers in this occupation, so this is not an exhaustive list.Finance and insurance pays a 24% premium over the national median— the clearest official evidence that fintech and financial-services design commands more than agency or retail work. Note that self-employed designers make up 10% of this occupation but are excluded from OEWS entirely, which is why no official freelance wage exists; see the freelance rates section below for non-government sources.

Frequently asked questions

Why do salary aggregator sites often show much higher numbers than BLS?

Two different things are being measured. BLS reportsbase salary median across all seniority levels and all company sizesfor a broad occupation code that includes general web design work. Sites that focus on named tech employers typically reporttotal compensation(base + bonus + equity), self-reported specifically by employees at higher-paying companies — which skews the picture toward the top of the market. Both can be accurate for what they measure; they're just answering different questions.

Is this calculator accurate for my specific offer?

No — treat it as a starting benchmark, not a valuation. It uses public aggregate multipliers, not your specific portfolio, negotiation leverage, or the exact equity structure of your offer. Research current compensation at your specific target company before negotiating.

Why isn't my state in the calculator dropdown?

The calculator includes the highest-employment states for this occupation per BLS data. Select "Other / Remote (US average)" for an approximate baseline, or check the full 51-state table above for your state's exact BLS multiplier.

How often is this page updated?

National, career-level, and related-occupation figures reflect BLS's May 2025 release (published May 2026) — the most current available. State figures are estimated by applying the confirmed national growth rate to the last full BLS state breakdown (May 2024), since BLS hasn't yet published detailed 2025 state data. Freelance platform rates are checked quarterly. Last full review: July 2026.