Average salary in the U.S.: $69,770 a year
The mean annual wage across every job BLS counts in the United States, then every state, DC, Puerto Rico and the largest metro areas.
The average salary in the United States is $69,770 a year ($33.54 an hour): that is the mean annual wage across 155,495,730 jobs in the BLS May 2025 survey. The median is $50,980 ($24.51 an hour), so half of those jobs paid less and half paid more. The mean sits above the median because a smaller number of very high wages pulls it up.
Average salary by state
Washington, DC has the highest mean salary ($111,010) and Mississippi the lowest ($50,810). By median, Washington, DC is highest ($91,540) and Mississippi lowest ($40,120). 18 of the 50 states and DC have a mean above the U.S. figure (calculated).
| State | Mean (average) | Median | Median rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, DC | $111,010 | $91,540 | 1st |
| Massachusetts | $85,610 | $63,590 | 2nd |
| Washington | $83,330 | $62,990 | 3rd |
| New York | $82,460 | $59,670 | 7th |
| California | $80,690 | $58,240 | 10th |
| New Jersey | $78,040 | $58,570 | 9th |
| Maryland | $77,580 | $59,510 | 8th |
| Connecticut | $77,420 | $59,690 | 6th |
| Colorado | $77,190 | $59,800 | 5th |
| Alaska | $74,720 | $61,000 | 4th |
| Virginia | $74,040 | $55,690 | 17th |
| Oregon | $72,460 | $57,000 | 11th |
| Rhode Island | $71,900 | $56,780 | 13th |
| New Hampshire | $71,360 | $55,880 | 16th |
| Minnesota | $71,160 | $56,920 | 12th |
| Illinois | $71,130 | $51,960 | 20th |
| Hawaii | $70,270 | $56,320 | 15th |
| Delaware | $69,880 | $52,190 | 19th |
| Vermont | $69,050 | $56,390 | 14th |
| Arizona | $67,620 | $50,060 | 25th |
| Utah | $66,290 | $50,110 | 24th |
| Georgia | $65,920 | $48,170 | 33rd |
| Maine | $65,780 | $51,430 | 21st |
| Texas | $65,750 | $48,620 | 31st |
| Pennsylvania | $65,730 | $49,690 | 26th |
| Michigan | $64,920 | $49,270 | 28th |
| Florida | $64,670 | $47,880 | 37th |
| Ohio | $64,390 | $49,380 | 27th |
| North Carolina | $64,290 | $47,970 | 36th |
| Wisconsin | $64,270 | $50,270 | 22nd |
| North Dakota | $64,050 | $52,480 | 18th |
| Nebraska | $62,400 | $48,980 | 29th |
| New Mexico | $62,330 | $47,210 | 42nd |
| Missouri | $62,160 | $47,800 | 39th |
| Nevada | $62,050 | $47,660 | 40th |
| Wyoming | $61,560 | $50,270 | 23rd |
| Idaho | $61,170 | $47,970 | 35th |
| Montana | $60,880 | $48,740 | 30th |
| Indiana | $60,840 | $47,860 | 38th |
| Tennessee | $60,800 | $47,380 | 41st |
| Kansas | $60,640 | $48,010 | 34th |
| Iowa | $59,830 | $48,540 | 32nd |
| South Carolina | $59,280 | $46,490 | 45th |
| Kentucky | $58,990 | $46,920 | 44th |
| South Dakota | $57,610 | $47,080 | 43rd |
| Alabama | $57,500 | $45,670 | 46th |
| Oklahoma | $56,950 | $45,600 | 47th |
| Louisiana | $56,600 | $45,520 | 48th |
| West Virginia | $56,470 | $45,300 | 49th |
| Arkansas | $54,890 | $43,630 | 50th |
| Mississippi | $50,810 | $40,120 | 51st |
| Puerto Rico | $38,840 | $28,680 | not ranked |
Average salary in large metro areas
BLS publishes metro figures for whole metropolitan statistical areas, not city limits. Each page names the area it covers.
| Metro | BLS area | Mean (average) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $100,220 | $74,260 |
| Seattle | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $91,790 | $72,610 |
| New York City | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $86,310 | $61,430 |
| San Diego | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $79,060 | $58,690 |
| Los Angeles | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $77,270 | $55,850 |
| Chicago | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $73,380 | $54,720 |
| Atlanta | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $71,900 | $51,170 |
| Dallas | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $70,630 | $51,440 |
| Houston | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $67,610 | $49,410 |
| Miami | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $67,190 | $48,640 |
| San Antonio | San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | $61,140 | $47,010 |
| Las Vegas | Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | $60,800 | $46,670 |
What U.S. jobs pay, from low to high
One U.S. job in ten paid less than $31,200 a year, and one in ten paid more than $128,560.
| Area | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $31,200 | $37,590 | $50,980 | $80,520 | $128,560 |
Pay by job group in the U.S.
The largest group in the U.S. is office and administrative support, with 17,753,430 jobs (11% of the total, calculated). The best-paid group by median is management ($126,520); the lowest-paid is food preparation and serving related ($35,050). Where BLS does not release a figure, the table says so.
| Job group | Jobs | Median salary | Mean (average) salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office and Administrative Support | 17,753,430 | $47,450 | $51,560 |
| Food Preparation and Serving Related | 13,680,750 | $35,050 | $37,150 |
| Transportation and Material Moving | 13,677,150 | $44,350 | $49,850 |
| Sales and Related | 13,424,300 | $38,530 | $54,960 |
| Management | 11,132,700 | $126,520 | $145,260 |
| Business and Financial Operations | 10,537,240 | $82,660 | $95,230 |
| Healthcare Practitioners and Technical | 9,823,860 | $86,530 | $108,700 |
| Educational Instruction and Library | 9,100,570 | $60,570 | $67,540 |
| Production | 8,565,760 | $46,990 | $51,600 |
| Healthcare Support | 7,901,670 | $38,340 | $40,800 |
| Construction and Extraction | 6,425,160 | $59,540 | $65,360 |
| Installation, Maintenance, and Repair | 6,086,190 | $59,620 | $63,320 |
| Computer and Mathematical | 5,260,110 | $109,280 | $120,080 |
| Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 4,548,260 | $37,680 | $40,880 |
| Protective Service | 3,776,610 | $50,080 | $60,720 |
| Personal Care and Service | 3,255,790 | $36,410 | $41,070 |
| Community and Social Service | 2,668,680 | $58,300 | $63,410 |
| Architecture and Engineering | 2,617,130 | $99,520 | $106,830 |
| Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 2,046,290 | $62,750 | $79,790 |
| Life, Physical, and Social Science | 1,473,260 | $82,530 | $94,600 |
| Legal | 1,305,620 | $102,500 | $139,510 |
| Farming, Fishing, and Forestry | 435,200 | $36,630 | $41,510 |
Go deeper
The best-paid occupations, ranked.
Open →CalculatorSalary to hourly calculatorConvert any salary or hourly rate.
Open →Pay floorMinimum wage by stateEvery state's hourly floor.
Open →PricesCost of living by stateWhat a salary buys.
Open →Take-homePaycheck calculatorPay after taxes, by state.
Open →NegotiateSalary negotiationAsk for the top of the range.
Open →Disclosure: TryHired makes HIRED, a paid job-search program, so we have a conflict of interest when we mention it. Everything on this page is free to use without buying anything.
Questions people ask
What is the average salary in the U.S.?
What is the median salary in the U.S.?
Which state has the highest average salary?
Does the average salary include self-employed people?
How this page is built
Every pay figure is a BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2025 estimate for all occupations in the United States and each area shown (occupation code 00-0000), copied from BLS's data file; the job-group and occupation rows come from the same file. The average is BLS's mean wage (total wages divided by jobs); the median is the wage in the middle. OEWS wages are straight-time gross pay: they include commissions, tips, production bonuses and cost-of-living allowances, and leave out overtime premiums, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses and benefits. BLS turns hourly wages into annual ones at 2,080 hours (40 hours for 52 weeks). Ranks, differences and shares are TryHired calculations from the BLS figures. Price levels are BEA Regional Price Parities.
- Household income: this page reports pay per job, not household or family income, which the Census Bureau measures differently.
- Starting pay: the figures include experienced workers. Entry-level pay is usually lower.
- Take-home pay: every figure is before taxes and deductions.
- Self-employment and farm work: not covered by OEWS (see the FAQ).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates: national, state and metropolitan-area data files (public domain).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS technical notes: what the survey counts as wages and jobs.
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024 (released Feb 19, 2026).