About CertWorth
Data-driven career certification analysis
What CertWorth does
CertWorth helps people decide whether a professional certification or state license is worth the time, money, and effort. For each of 27 career paths across healthcare, trades, professional, and IT sectors, we publish state-by-state data on:
- Licensing requirements — training hours, exams, fees, renewal obligations, reciprocity — sourced from each state's official licensing board or department of professional regulation.
- Wage data — state-level median salary, entry-level and experienced-worker percentiles, and national comparisons — sourced directly from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program.
- Career outlook — projected job growth and total employment — from BLS Occupational Projections.
- Side-by-side comparisons — how two certifications actually compare on pay, training time, and career trajectory.
Who runs CertWorth
CertWorth is an independent research site. We don't sell courses, we don't take kickbacks from training providers, and we don't publish affiliate recommendations. The site is built and maintained by one person using public federal and state data, with the goal of making certification decisions more transparent than what you'll typically find on training-company marketing pages.
How decisions get made
Every page combines three kinds of information: what does it take (requirements from the state), what does it pay (wages from BLS), and is it worth it (our synthesis based on cost-to-earnings, growth rate, and state-specific factors). The synthesis is editorial; the underlying numbers are directly verifiable against their sources, which are linked on every page.
Corrections and feedback
If you find a licensing requirement that's out of date, a wage figure that looks wrong, or a factual error anywhere on the site, please let us know. We treat licensing data as a living document — state rules change, exam providers change, fees go up. Correction turnaround is typically under a week.
Read the full methodology for data sources, refresh schedule, and known limitations.