English Language and Literature/Letters
Field of study · CIP 2020
English Language and Literature/Letters is one of the fields of study in the U.S. Department of Education's Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). It contains 13 detailed programs and, through the official CIP–SOC crosswalk, connects to 7 occupations employing about 1,487,630 workers, with a median wage of $75,260. The crosswalk shows which jobs a field of study is related to — not a guarantee of entry.
What the occupations pay
Median annual wage across the occupations this field of study leads to, from BLS OEWS (national, cross-industry, May 2024). The middle range is the 25th–75th percentile of those occupation medians — it describes the field, not any one job or graduate.
| Median occupation wage | $75,260 |
| Middle range (p25–p75) | $68,425 – $78,380 |
| Occupations with wage data | 7 of 7 |
AI exposure of this field of study
Two published studies estimate how exposed each occupation is to today's AI. The OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" study rates the share of an occupation's tasks a large language model (with tools) could speed up by half or more; averaged across the occupations this field of study leads to it is 59% — 94th percentile of all fields of study. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages 1.20 here.
Computed across the 6 of 7 occupations this field leads to that carry a published exposure score.
The most-exposed fields of study lead to knowledge, language and analytical work; the least-exposed lead to physical trades and hands-on production. Exposure measures where AI could assist tasks, not a prediction that these jobs will be automated; high exposure most often means augmentation. Bands are comparable across the cluster, education, job-zone and field-of-study tiers (same two studies, same percentile method).
Where this field of study leads
The largest occupations connected to this field by the CIP–SOC crosswalk, by employment. Wage and employment describe the occupation, not an individual.
| Occupation | Workers | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 1,072,540 | $64,580 |
| Postsecondary Teachers, All Other | 151,530 | $78,490 |
| Editors | 95,480 | $75,260 |
| English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary | 59,590 | $78,270 |
| Technical Writers | 55,530 | $91,670 |
| Writers and Authors | 47,800 | $72,270 |
| Proofreaders and Copy Markers | 5,160 | $49,210 |
Programs in this field
A sample of the detailed CIP programs within this family. The full family contains 13 programs.
- 23.1403 American Literature (Canadian)
- 23.1402 American Literature (United States)
- 23.1405 Children's and Adolescent Literature
- 23.1302 Creative Writing
- 23.0101 English Language and Literature, General
- 23.9999 English Language and Literature/Letters, Other
- 23.1404 English Literature (British and Commonwealth)
- 23.1401 General Literature
- 23.1499 Literature, Other
- 23.1303 Professional, Technical, Business, and Scientific Writing
- 23.1304 Rhetoric and Composition
- 23.1399 Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies, Other
- 23.1301 Writing, General
Sources for this page
Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- CIP-2020 2020 U.S. National Center for Education Statistics
- “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic
- AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans academic
Data compiled June 3, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Singulariki. "English Language and Literature/Letters." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/programs/english-language-and-literature-letters
Singulariki. (2026). English Language and Literature/Letters. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/programs/english-language-and-literature-letters
@misc{singulariki-english-language-and-literature-letters,
title = {English Language and Literature/Letters},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/programs/english-language-and-literature-letters}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.