Highest paying jobs with only a high school diploma
A diploma is the entry requirement; everything else is learned on the job or through an apprenticeship. Ranked by median pay. Wages are Bureau of Labor Statistics medians for May 2025; entry requirements come from the federal Employment Projections classification.
| Occupation | Median | Top 10% | Training | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers | $109,910 | $158,890 | Apprenticeship | 23,790 |
| 2 Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers | $107,230 | $194,900 | — | 221,180 |
| 3 First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives | $106,040 | $165,110 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 154,610 |
| 4 Power Plant Operators | $102,040 | $131,940 | Long-term on-the-job training | 29,320 |
| 5 Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers | $96,710 | $115,880 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 33,160 |
| 6 Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers | $95,320 | $128,690 | Long-term on-the-job training | 131,070 |
| 7 Detectives and Criminal Investigators | $93,790 | $160,540 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 114,430 |
| 8 Transportation Inspectors | $92,100 | $138,670 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 24,500 |
| 9 Gas Plant Operators | $87,820 | $115,520 | Long-term on-the-job training | 18,030 |
| 10 First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers | $87,520 | $164,070 | — | 214,390 |
| 11 Locomotive Engineers | $81,410 | $109,220 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 33,470 |
| 12 First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | $79,920 | $128,260 | — | 812,210 |
| 13 First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers | $79,860 | $126,790 | — | 617,500 |
| 14 Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators | $78,620 | $125,390 | Long-term on-the-job training | 28,250 |
| 15 Chemical Plant and System Operators | $78,120 | $111,930 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 16,610 |
| 16 Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators | $78,000 | $117,040 | Long-term on-the-job training | 324,230 |
| 17 Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters | $78,000 | $109,770 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 46,440 |
| 18 First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers | $77,970 | $127,780 | — | 53,380 |
| 19 Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants | $76,590 | $109,850 | — | 459,910 |
| 20 First-Line Supervisors of Protective Service Workers, All Other | $76,400 | $103,420 | — | 20,690 |
| 21 Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers | $76,210 | $115,120 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 670,520 |
| 22 Construction and Building Inspectors | $74,690 | $114,200 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 146,720 |
| 23 First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | $74,450 | $108,750 | — | 673,430 |
| 24 Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door | $74,340 | $112,500 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 48,240 |
| 25 Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers | $74,330 | $103,680 | Long-term on-the-job training | 97,720 |
Reading this ranking
Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers tops the list at $109,910. The midpoint of this ranking is $79,860, so the leader pays 38% more than a typical entry on it — a normal spread for a ranking of this kind.
10 of the 25 listed reach competence through moderate-term on-the-job training. That is the actual entry route for this group — the qualification is not what gets you in, the training is.
Pay inside a single occupation varies more than people expect. For elevator and escalator installers and repairers, the bottom tenth earn $59,270 and the top tenth $158,890 — 2.7× apart. A ranking like this shows the middle; the band is where your own outcome sits.
232 occupations match this filter; the 25 shown are those with at least 15,000 people employed nationally. Smaller occupations are excluded because a national median drawn from a few thousand workers is not a reliable guide.
Other entry routes
Where these jobs pay most
Every figure above is a national median. The same occupation can pay two or three times more in one metropolitan area than another — the salary guides break each one down by metro.
About the data
Two federal datasets are joined here. Wages come from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey of employers. Entry requirements — education, training and prior experience — come from the Employment Projections programme, which assigns each occupation the level typically needed to enter it. “Typically” is doing real work in that sentence: individual employers set their own bars, and plenty hire above or below the classification.