By Salary by Career 
Another five years of experience should mean a bigger paycheck. At least, that’s how most people expect careers to work.
Consider two employees who started their careers at $50,000. Ten years later, one earns $100,000 after moving into a senior position. Another earns $65,000 after staying in a similar role and collecting modest annual raises.
Both have ten years of experience. Their paychecks tell rather different stories.
An analysis of payroll records covering more than 13 million U.S. jobs found that earnings increase substantially during early working years, grow more slowly during mid-career, and eventually begin to decline.
So, how much does salary increase with experience, and at what point does another year on the job stop making much financial difference?
Average Salary by Years of Experience
A useful starting point for examining the average salary by years of experience is the relationship between age and earnings.
Payroll data collected during 2024, covering more than 110 million payroll records associated with over 13 million jobs, provides a picture of how American workers’ compensation changes throughout their careers.
Figures represent annualized median gross pay based on 2024 U.S. payroll data, published in 2025. They include compensation such as bonuses and commissions, not just base salary.
One distinction matters immediately. These numbers describe earnings by age, not exact years of professional experience.
A 35-year-old who started working at 18 has a different employment history than someone who completed graduate school and entered the workforce at 28.
Still, age-based earnings provide a useful indication of salary growth by career stage.
Median earnings more than double between the youngest workers and those aged 25-34. Growth then becomes progressively smaller, with the highest median appearing among workers aged 45-54.
In other words, a national salary figure provides a reference point. It doesn’t establish what a particular employee should earn.
After 5 Years of Experience – The First Significant Salary Jump
Five years can make a considerable difference in someone’s earning potential.
Entry-level employees typically spend their first working years learning procedures, developing technical skills, and proving they can handle responsibilities without constant supervision.
By year five, many have accumulated enough practical knowledge to qualify for positions that were unavailable when they started.
Payroll figures show just how substantial early-career differences can be.
Workers younger than 25 had median annualized earnings of $33,900 in 2024. Among workers aged 25-34, that figure reached $68,700.
That’s approximately a 103% difference.
Nobody should interpret that as a guaranteed five-year raise. Comparisons involve different age groups, employment histories, and working arrangements.
Nevertheless, the difference helps explain why early career development matters financially.
Moving into more demanding work often creates greater earning opportunities than simply becoming more experienced at the same job.
Recent wage data supports that distinction. In September 2026, workers who changed jobs recorded median annual hourly wage growth of 4.7%, compared with 3.4% among those who stayed with their employer.
A 1.3-percentage-point advantage might not sound enormous, but it helps explain why changing employers can be financially attractive.
Of course, those figures describe different groups of workers, not a guaranteed raise for everyone who submits a resignation letter.
After 10 Years of Experience – Why Salaries Start to Diverge
Ten years into a career, experience starts telling employers something different.
An employee with a decade of work history has usually encountered difficult projects, unexpected problems, and decisions that weren’t covered during initial training.
Some professionals use that knowledge to move into management. Others become senior specialists whose expertise carries considerable value without requiring them to supervise anyone.
Finding a position with better advancement prospects isn’t always straightforward. Among workers who changed jobs in 2025, only 44% reported improved career advancement opportunities, compared with 51% in 2022.
A new employer may offer higher pay without offering much room to grow. For someone ten years into a career, that distinction can become important when considering the next promotion.
Both routes can increase earnings, although not necessarily at the same pace.
Among American workers aged 35-44, median annualized pay reached $90,500 in 2024, approximately 31.7% higher than the $68,700 recorded for ages 25-34.
More revealing is the distribution of pay within this age group.
Among workers aged 25-34, the difference between the 10th and 90th percentile of earners equaled 1.15 times median pay. For ages 35-44, that spread increased to 1.36 times median pay.
In practical terms, earnings become less uniform as workers advance through their careers.
Some employees gain authority over budgets, teams, and important business decisions. Others continue performing established duties with fewer opportunities for advancement.
Neither path necessarily indicates better work or greater effort.
However, their compensation prospects can differ substantially.
Why two employees with ten years of experience can earn very different salaries?
Consider two hypothetical operations professionals who each earn $70,000 after several years of employment.
One becomes responsible for supervising a department, negotiating supplier contracts, and managing a multimillion-dollar operating budget.
Another continues handling the same administrative functions, although with greater efficiency and fewer mistakes.
Both employees have developed professionally. Yet the first position carries additional responsibilities that an employer may value more highly.
Imagine their salaries subsequently increase to $95,000 and $77,000.
That’s an $18,000 annual difference, despite similar years of experience.
After 20 Years of Experience – Do Salaries Reach a Ceiling?
Twenty years of experience sounds impressive on a résumé.
Unfortunately, payroll departments don’t issue automatic bonuses for surviving two decades of meetings.
By mid-career, many professionals have already captured a substantial portion of the financial gains associated with gaining experience.
Median annualized earnings among workers aged 45-54 reached $97,600 in 2024, the highest of the reported age groups.
That’s only 7.8% higher than the $90,500 median among workers aged 35-44.
Compare that difference with the much larger increases associated with younger age groups, and a pattern becomes apparent.
Earnings generally rise rapidly during early working years before growth moderates.
Several factors help explain why.
Senior positions are less numerous than junior and mid-level positions. Organizations need many employees performing everyday operations, but considerably fewer department heads and executives.
Salary bands can also limit increases. Someone earning near the top of their position’s compensation range may need a promotion, a different employer, or substantially expanded responsibilities to secure another meaningful raise.
However, a salary ceiling isn’t inevitable.
Experienced professionals can continue increasing their income by developing scarce expertise, managing larger operations, entering executive roles, or pursuing consulting work.
How AI Is Changing the Value of Work Experience
Experience has traditionally carried an advantage that technology couldn’t easily reproduce.
Junior employees learned through repetition. Senior employees developed judgment through years of solving problems, correcting mistakes, and handling situations that didn’t follow the usual instructions.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to change that arrangement.
AI could reshape careers in ways that affect both hiring and advancement, particularly for employees whose work involves repetitive tasks. As employers reconsider which skills they need, years of experience alone may carry less weight in certain positions.
Some routine tasks that once helped new employees build their careers can now be completed or assisted by generative AI tools.
Writing standardized reports, summarizing documents, preparing basic code, and processing repetitive information are examples.
Recent employment research suggests that younger workers may already be encountering greater difficulties in occupations exposed to these technologies.
An August 2026 analysis of U.S. payroll data found that employment among workers aged 22-25 in highly AI-exposed occupations was approximately 19% below the level it would have reached if employment had grown at the same rate as comparable workers in less-exposed occupations.
Experienced workers showed no comparable gap.
Importantly, that 19% represents a relative employment shortfall against a comparison benchmark, not a 19% unemployment rate or a direct measure of jobs eliminated by AI.
Researchers also found that employment changes were concentrated in occupations where AI could automate tasks, rather than primarily assist employees with their work.
Experience Opens Doors, but It Doesn’t Set Your Salary
Five years of experience can help an employee move into better-paying work. Ten years may create opportunities for senior responsibilities and specialized positions. Twenty years can bring substantial earnings, although salary growth often becomes slower.
None of those milestones guarantees a particular paycheck.
Someone with considerable experience may earn less than a relatively new employee working in a more competitive field. Another professional might command significantly higher compensation because their knowledge solves expensive problems.
AI adds another reason to reconsider what employers actually reward. Routine experience may become less valuable in some occupations, while practical judgment and the ability to apply new technology could gain importance.
For employees evaluating their earnings, the most useful comparison isn’t necessarily with someone who has worked the same number of years.
It’s with someone performing comparable work, carrying similar responsibilities, and possessing skills employers currently need.