Glossary

Compensation & wage data

BLS OES (Occupational Employment Statistics)

The federal survey program publishing wage percentiles and employment counts by occupation × geography. Released annually each May. Our primary wage source.

BEA RPP (Regional Price Parity)

A federal price-level index by state and metro area, with the US average at 100. RPP > 100 means more expensive than average; < 100 means cheaper. We use it to compute real wages.

P10 / P25 / P50 / P75 / P90 (Wage percentiles)

Cut points that split the wage distribution. P50 = median (middle wage). P90 = 90th percentile (top decile). P10 = bottom decile (entry / first-year floor).

SOC code (Standard Occupational Classification)

Six-digit federal occupation taxonomy. e.g., 15-1252 = Software Developers; 29-1141 = Registered Nurses. Every BLS wage table is keyed by SOC.

Real wage vs. nominal wage

Nominal = the dollar amount on the offer letter. Real = the dollar amount adjusted for local cost of living (we use BEA RPP). $120K in San Francisco is a different real wage from $120K in Mississippi.

Top-coding

BLS censors annual wages at $239,200 — meaning anyone earning above that is reported as exactly $239,200 in OES. This understates upper-tail comp in tech, physician specialties, and finance, which is why we sometimes layer in employer-data signals labeled separately.

Total compensation (TC)

Base salary + bonus + equity + benefits. BLS OES typically reports base + bonus only, not equity. For tech roles we surface TC ranges from public sources separately and label them clearly.

FICA

Federal Insurance Contributions Act payroll tax — 6.2% Social Security up to the wage base ($176,100 in 2026) plus 1.45% Medicare with no cap. Always deducted from take-home pay.

RSU (Restricted Stock Unit)

Equity comp granted as company stock, vesting over time (typically 4 years with a 1-year cliff). Taxable as ordinary income at vest. Major component of FAANG-tier total comp.

Licensing

NLC (Nurse Licensure Compact)

Multi-state nursing license framework administered by NCSBN. Currently 41 states. One license issued by your primary state of residence is recognized by all member states.

PT Compact

Multi-state physical therapy license framework. ~38 states. Different from NLC: you hold a home-state license + apply for "compact privileges" in target states.

NASDTEC Interstate Agreement

Teacher-licensure recognition framework. Most states participate, but receiving states usually require additional steps (basic-skills exam, content-area exam, additional coursework).

ARELLO

Real-estate licensing umbrella. Reciprocity is partial and bilateral — Florida famously has 8-state mutual recognition; many other states require taking the state portion of the exam.

Endorsement

Process of getting a state to recognize a license you already hold elsewhere. Different from compact membership: requires application, fee, and often jurisprudence exam.

Reciprocity

Mutual recognition between specific states. Often confused with compact membership. Reciprocity is bilateral; compacts are multilateral.

FPA (Full Practice Authority)

State-by-state designation that lets nurse practitioners practice and prescribe without physician supervision. ~25 states have FPA; others are restricted or reduced.

Primary state of residence

For compact licenses (NLC), the state where you live, vote, file taxes, and hold a driver's license. Compacts issue your license through this state — moving usually means surrendering and re-applying.

Career transitions

O*NET

US Department of Labor occupational database publishing skill importance ratings, knowledge requirements, and task statements per SOC code. Foundation for our transition skill-gap math.

Skill gap

The difference in required skill ratings between source and target SOC codes (e.g., RN vs NP). We compute it from O*NET importance ratings and use it to estimate program length and difficulty.

NPV (Net Present Value)

Sum of future wage gains discounted to present value, minus tuition and forgone wages. The standard ROI metric for career transitions over multi-year horizons.

Forgone wage

Wages you'd have earned during a program if you weren't enrolled. Default assumption: 50% of your pre-transition wage (assumes part-time work).

Discount rate

Annual rate used to convert future wages to present value. We default to 5% (above safe-asset returns to reflect career-uncertainty risk).

Acronyms by profession

NP / FNP / PMHNP / ACNP / WHNP

Nurse Practitioner / Family / Psychiatric Mental Health / Acute Care / Women's Health.

PA

Physician Assistant — master's-level provider; works under MD supervision unless state has specific autonomy provisions.

CRNA

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist — highest-paying APRN specialty (median ~$200K).

MSN / DNP

Master of Science in Nursing / Doctor of Nursing Practice. DNP is the terminal practice degree; required for new NP licensure in some states starting 2025.

CPA / CMA / CFA

Certified Public Accountant / Certified Management Accountant / Chartered Financial Analyst — three different finance-adjacent credentials with overlapping but distinct career paths.

MBA / PMP

Master of Business Administration / Project Management Professional — two of the highest-volume "should I get this credential" decision points; covered in our comparison.