Average Salary by U.S. State
Compare median wages, typical pay and cost-of-living adjusted income across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Current 2026 figures, sourced from public federal wage data.
Top-paying states
Mean annual wage across all occupations. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024.
Browse by state
Median household income, mean wage, top industries and cost-of-living context for every U.S. state.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Popular occupations
Pay figures by job and state. Based on BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 release.
What the numbers mean
State salary figures come in three flavors — and they answer different questions. Use the one that matches what you want to know.
- Mean annual wage
- The arithmetic average of all reported wages in a state. Pulled upward by very high earners; useful for total-economy comparisons.
- Median wage
- The middle value — half of workers earn more, half earn less. The best single number for a “typical” paycheck.
- Cost-of-living adjusted income
- Nominal pay divided by the state’s regional price parity. Compares purchasing power, not headline dollars.