Atlanta Compensation Benchmarks 2026
Atlanta does not pay one premium. Across 119 major occupations it runs -2.3% against national medians on average, but that average hides a spread of 18.4 points between the best-paid and worst-paid occupation groups in this metro.
Which means the shortcut most pay structures rely on, a single Atlanta geographic adjustment factor, is wrong in both directions at once: it underpays the roles this market values and overpays relative to market on the roles it does not.
Computed from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA (CBSA 12060). 636 occupations carry metro-level data; 119 have Atlanta employment above 5,000 and are used here. Free to read, free to use, no account required.
Atlanta pay by occupation group
Median wage vs national · employment-weighted within group
→ Management at +3.6% and Protective Service at -14.8%. Same metro, same month, 18.4 points apart.
Where Atlanta pays more
Largest premium vs national median
Where Atlanta pays less
Largest discount vs national median
The ten roles Atlanta employs most
Metro median vs national median · annualised at 2,080 hours
| Role | Atlanta | National | Gap | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | $32,843 | $35,422 | -7.3% | 85K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | $39,021 | $40,248 | -3.0% | 78K |
| General and Operations Managers | $111,405 | $105,768 | +5.3% | 69K |
| Customer Service Representatives | $42,723 | $44,782 | -4.6% | 60K |
| Registered Nurses | $100,485 | $97,552 | +3.0% | 56K |
| Cashiers | $30,014 | $32,885 | -8.7% | 51K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | $36,171 | $37,336 | -3.1% | 51K |
| Business Operations Specialists, All Other | $80,018 | $83,054 | -3.7% | 44K |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | $59,093 | $58,635 | +0.8% | 42K |
| Office Clerks, General | $43,326 | $45,011 | -3.7% | 41K |
What named Atlanta employers file for the same job
US Department of Labor H-1B filings · FY2026 Q3 (decisions 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026) · 13,691 certified Atlanta filings from 3,679 employers
Market data tells you the range; it never tells you who pays what. Employer wage filings do. Taking one role, Software Developers, and only employers with 12+ Atlanta filings in it, the same job in the same metro is filed anywhere from the 29th to above the 90th percentile of the market range on this page:
| Employer | Filings | Median filed | vs Atlanta market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce, Inc. | 13 | $194,027 | >P90 |
| Omnissa, LLC | 13 | $185,658 | >P90 |
| OT Technology, Inc. | 18 | $172,915 | P84 |
| Google LLC | 26 | $168,500 | P80 |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 17 | $163,929 | P75 |
| Ernst & Young U.S. LLP | 60 | $161,908 | P73 |
| ADP Technology Services, Inc. | 70 | $108,835 | P29 |
| INFOTECH PRISM LLC | 15 | $109,283 | P29 |
| TECH MAHINDRA (AMERICAS), INC | 15 | $109,284 | P29 |
→ Sixty percentile points between named employers, inside one role, inside one metro. A candidate moving between two of these companies is not moving within a band; they are changing markets.
What this data is, and is not. These are base salaries stated on Labor Condition Applications for visa-sponsored roles, floored by prevailing-wage rules: offered pay on a legal form, not a payroll extract, and base only, no bonus or equity. It shows how an employer positions pay for a role. Source: US Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification disclosure files, FY2026 Q3 (decisions 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026). Employers keyed on federal tax ID; role medians computed only where an employer has 12 or more Atlanta filings in that occupation.
Method, and one exclusion worth naming
Each Atlanta occupation is compared to its own national median from the same BLS survey vintage, so the comparison holds the job constant. Group figures are employment-weighted, meaning a group is driven by the roles Atlanta actually employs rather than by an unweighted average across job titles.
Tipped occupations are excluded. BLS reports cash wages for tipped roles, and most of the variation between metros comes from state tip-credit law rather than local pay levels: Georgia applies the federal tipped minimum, while the national median is lifted by states that require full minimum wage before tips. Including waiters and bartenders would show discounts approaching 50% and present a legal difference as an Atlanta pay effect. They are left out for that reason.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA (CBSA 12060). Employer-reported wages from approximately 1.1 million surveyed establishments. Analysis by CompSignal; the underlying figures are BLS, the comparison and commentary are ours.
Run this on your own roles
Every tool below is free, needs no account, and uses the same BLS data as this analysis.
CompSignal is built by Falcon Incentives, a Diamond Sponsor of the Atlanta Area Compensation Association.
Know when these numbers move
This analysis runs on BLS OEWS May 2025. When the next vintage lands, every figure on this page changes. Leave your details and we will tell you, and we will know which metro cuts to build next.