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Labor & Workplace · BLS QCEW · A payroll ledger of the United States

Where the
Paychecks Are

There is no such thing as the average American wage. There is a number that a short list of finance and tech counties drags upward, and there is everywhere else. This is the ledger of that gap - what the typical covered job pays, county by county, sector by sector, and how far apart the two Americas of pay have drifted.

Posts as the national average $1,454 a week, employment-weighted across every covered job
The median county actually pays $992 $462 below the headline, and it is the more honest middle
Top county over the floor 4.6× what the highest-paying county pays against the bottom tenth
3,143 counties · 2015-2024 Full

The Wage Map

I. Across the states

Start with the terrain. Every state is shaded by its average weekly wage - what the typical covered job pays before a cent is deducted. The dark end is a tight knot of coastal and capital states; the interior and the South run pale, near $1,022 a week and below. The national average of $1,454 is not the color of the country - it is the color of a handful of counties inside the darkest states, averaged over everyone else.

Alabama: $1,193/week Alaska: $1,382/week Arizona: $1,354/week Colorado: $1,544/week Florida: $1,336/week Georgia: $1,358/week Indiana: $1,206/week Kansas: $1,169/week Maine: $1,216/week Massachusetts: $1,848/week Minnesota: $1,427/week New Jersey: $1,603/week North Carolina: $1,322/week North Dakota: $1,263/week Oklahoma: $1,129/week Pennsylvania: $1,379/week South Dakota: $1,121/week Texas: $1,450/week Wyoming: $1,185/week Connecticut: $1,683/week Missouri: $1,230/week West Virginia: $1,121/week Illinois: $1,486/week New Mexico: $1,171/week Arkansas: $1,123/week California: $1,772/week Delaware: $1,392/week District of Columbia: $2,365/week Hawaii: $1,295/week Iowa: $1,180/week Kentucky: $1,162/week Maryland: $1,518/week Michigan: $1,313/week Mississippi: $980/week Montana: $1,155/week New Hampshire: $1,489/week New York: $1,829/week Ohio: $1,267/week Oregon: $1,371/week Tennessee: $1,297/week Utah: $1,286/week Virginia: $1,494/week Washington: $1,827/week Wisconsin: $1,220/week Nebraska: $1,174/week South Carolina: $1,173/week Idaho: $1,146/week Nevada: $1,290/week Vermont: $1,240/week Louisiana: $1,179/week Rhode Island: $1,313/week
Shade encodes state average weekly wage, five quantile classes. Alaska and Hawaii are inset by the Albers USA projection; territories fall outside its frame and appear only in the table. County detail is in the leaderboard below.
Highest-paying states
  1. 01 District of Columbia $2,365
  2. 02 Massachusetts $1,848
  3. 03 New York $1,829
  4. 04 Washington $1,827
  5. 05 California $1,772
Every state, in a table
State Avg weekly wage Covered employment
District of Columbia DC $2,365 759,666
Massachusetts MA $1,848 3,644,805
New York NY $1,829 9,705,821
Washington WA $1,827 3,594,439
California CA $1,772 18,183,696
Connecticut CT $1,683 1,683,378
New Jersey NJ $1,603 4,252,229
Colorado CO $1,544 2,897,901
Maryland MD $1,518 2,768,546
Virginia VA $1,494 4,106,139
New Hampshire NH $1,489 687,990
Illinois IL $1,486 6,043,357
Texas TX $1,450 13,936,364
Minnesota MN $1,427 2,932,411
Delaware DE $1,392 477,336
Alaska AK $1,382 329,164
Pennsylvania PA $1,379 6,019,836
Oregon OR $1,371 1,994,161
Georgia GA $1,358 4,862,001
Arizona AZ $1,354 3,222,450
Florida FL $1,336 9,836,491
North Carolina NC $1,322 4,901,211
Michigan MI $1,313 4,407,319
Rhode Island RI $1,313 495,179
Tennessee TN $1,297 3,270,771
Hawaii HI $1,295 639,801
Nevada NV $1,290 1,551,426
Utah UT $1,286 1,714,013
Ohio OH $1,267 5,520,656
North Dakota ND $1,263 428,692
Vermont VT $1,240 309,138
Missouri MO $1,230 2,898,179
Wisconsin WI $1,220 2,944,347
Maine ME $1,216 648,874
Indiana IN $1,206 3,179,542
Alabama AL $1,193 2,105,674
Wyoming WY $1,185 282,194
Iowa IA $1,180 1,562,561
Louisiana LA $1,179 1,920,359
Nebraska NE $1,174 1,018,759
South Carolina SC $1,173 2,284,611
New Mexico NM $1,171 869,987
Kansas KS $1,169 1,429,358
Kentucky KY $1,162 1,988,347
Montana MT $1,155 512,774
Idaho ID $1,146 858,504
Oklahoma OK $1,129 1,692,477
Arkansas AR $1,123 1,295,577
South Dakota SD $1,121 458,558
West Virginia WV $1,121 695,658
Mississippi MS $980 1,167,716

Real QCEW figures: the state rollup (agglvl 50, total covered) of the 2024 annual-averages singlefile - see Methodology and HANDOFF.md.

The Top of the Ledger

II. The counties that set the top

These are the fifteen highest-paying counties that bend the national number upward, ranked by what the average job pays (among counties with at least 50,000 covered jobs, so a lone mine or lab cannot buy a spot). The dashed line is the national average of $1,454; every bar clears it, and the leaders clear it by triple. This is not a cross-section of America - it is a short roll of finance and tech counties writing the ceiling for everyone else.

  1. 01 Santa Clara CountyCA Tech corridor $3,789
  2. 02 San Mateo CountyCA Tech corridor $3,778
  3. 03 San Francisco CountyCA Tech corridor $3,348
  4. 04 New York CountyNY Financial core $3,175
  5. 05 King CountyWA Tech corridor $2,544
  6. 06 Suffolk CountyMA Coastal metro $2,525
  7. 07 Western Connecticut Planning RegionCT Financial core $2,482
  8. 08 District of ColumbiaDC Capital region $2,365
  9. 09 Arlington CountyVA Capital region $2,363
  10. 10 Fairfax CountyVA Capital region $2,194
  11. 11 Middlesex CountyMA Tech corridor $2,187
  12. 12 Somerset CountyNJ Financial core $2,046
  13. 13 Denver CountyCO Mountain metro $1,958
  14. 14 Morris CountyNJ Financial core $1,946
  15. 15 Fulton CountyGA Sun Belt metro $1,939

And the floor

Turn the ledger over. At the bottom sit border, tourism, and rural Southern counties where the typical week pays near $825 - so the county at the top of the roll pays about 5× what the county at the bottom does, for a week of the same length.

  • Hidalgo CountyTX $825 Border county
  • Sevier CountyTN $841 Tourism economy
  • Cameron CountyTX $857 Border county
  • DeSoto CountyMS $879 Rural South
  • Webb CountyTX $892 Border county
  • Onslow CountyNC $902 Military economy
  • Horry CountySC $924 Tourism economy
  • Harrison CountyMS $926 Gulf Coast

Above and Below the Line

III. Every state against the national average

The map shows where the money is; this shows how lopsided the spread is. Post each state against the national average and only 12 of 51 land in the black. The credit side is a short, steep column of coastal and capital states; the debit side is long, shallow, and runs deep through the interior and the South - the same asymmetry that makes the average a poor description of the middle.

-$400 -$200 avg +$200 +$400 +$600 +$800 national average $1,454 District of Columbia: +$911 vs national ($2,365/week) District of Columbia +$911 Massachusetts: +$394 vs national ($1,848/week) Massachusetts +$394 New York: +$375 vs national ($1,829/week) New York +$375 Washington: +$373 vs national ($1,827/week) California: +$318 vs national ($1,772/week) Connecticut: +$229 vs national ($1,683/week) New Jersey: +$149 vs national ($1,603/week) Colorado: +$90 vs national ($1,544/week) Maryland: +$64 vs national ($1,518/week) Virginia: +$40 vs national ($1,494/week) New Hampshire: +$35 vs national ($1,489/week) Illinois: +$32 vs national ($1,486/week) Texas: -$4 vs national ($1,450/week) Minnesota: -$27 vs national ($1,427/week) Delaware: -$62 vs national ($1,392/week) Alaska: -$72 vs national ($1,382/week) Pennsylvania: -$75 vs national ($1,379/week) Oregon: -$83 vs national ($1,371/week) Georgia: -$96 vs national ($1,358/week) Arizona: -$100 vs national ($1,354/week) Florida: -$118 vs national ($1,336/week) North Carolina: -$132 vs national ($1,322/week) Michigan: -$141 vs national ($1,313/week) Rhode Island: -$141 vs national ($1,313/week) Tennessee: -$157 vs national ($1,297/week) Hawaii: -$159 vs national ($1,295/week) Nevada: -$164 vs national ($1,290/week) Utah: -$168 vs national ($1,286/week) Ohio: -$187 vs national ($1,267/week) North Dakota: -$191 vs national ($1,263/week) Vermont: -$214 vs national ($1,240/week) Missouri: -$224 vs national ($1,230/week) Wisconsin: -$234 vs national ($1,220/week) Maine: -$238 vs national ($1,216/week) Indiana: -$248 vs national ($1,206/week) Alabama: -$261 vs national ($1,193/week) Wyoming: -$269 vs national ($1,185/week) Iowa: -$274 vs national ($1,180/week) Louisiana: -$275 vs national ($1,179/week) Nebraska: -$280 vs national ($1,174/week) South Carolina: -$281 vs national ($1,173/week) New Mexico: -$283 vs national ($1,171/week) Kansas: -$285 vs national ($1,169/week) Kentucky: -$292 vs national ($1,162/week) Montana: -$299 vs national ($1,155/week) Idaho: -$308 vs national ($1,146/week) Oklahoma: -$325 vs national ($1,129/week) Arkansas: -$331 vs national ($1,123/week) South Dakota: -$333 vs national ($1,121/week) South Dakota -$333 West Virginia: -$333 vs national ($1,121/week) West Virginia -$333 Mississippi: -$474 vs national ($980/week) Mississippi -$474
States ranked top to bottom, each a stem drawn from the national average to its own. The tallest credits clear the line by hundreds of dollars a week; most states sit just under it.
Every state, ranked, in a table
Rank State Avg weekly wage vs national
01 District of Columbia DC $2,365 +$911
02 Massachusetts MA $1,848 +$394
03 New York NY $1,829 +$375
04 Washington WA $1,827 +$373
05 California CA $1,772 +$318
06 Connecticut CT $1,683 +$229
07 New Jersey NJ $1,603 +$149
08 Colorado CO $1,544 +$90
09 Maryland MD $1,518 +$64
10 Virginia VA $1,494 +$40
11 New Hampshire NH $1,489 +$35
12 Illinois IL $1,486 +$32
13 Texas TX $1,450 -$4
14 Minnesota MN $1,427 -$27
15 Delaware DE $1,392 -$62
16 Alaska AK $1,382 -$72
17 Pennsylvania PA $1,379 -$75
18 Oregon OR $1,371 -$83
19 Georgia GA $1,358 -$96
20 Arizona AZ $1,354 -$100
21 Florida FL $1,336 -$118
22 North Carolina NC $1,322 -$132
23 Michigan MI $1,313 -$141
24 Rhode Island RI $1,313 -$141
25 Tennessee TN $1,297 -$157
26 Hawaii HI $1,295 -$159
27 Nevada NV $1,290 -$164
28 Utah UT $1,286 -$168
29 Ohio OH $1,267 -$187
30 North Dakota ND $1,263 -$191
31 Vermont VT $1,240 -$214
32 Missouri MO $1,230 -$224
33 Wisconsin WI $1,220 -$234
34 Maine ME $1,216 -$238
35 Indiana IN $1,206 -$248
36 Alabama AL $1,193 -$261
37 Wyoming WY $1,185 -$269
38 Iowa IA $1,180 -$274
39 Louisiana LA $1,179 -$275
40 Nebraska NE $1,174 -$280
41 South Carolina SC $1,173 -$281
42 New Mexico NM $1,171 -$283
43 Kansas KS $1,169 -$285
44 Kentucky KY $1,162 -$292
45 Montana MT $1,155 -$299
46 Idaho ID $1,146 -$308
47 Oklahoma OK $1,129 -$325
48 Arkansas AR $1,123 -$331
49 South Dakota SD $1,121 -$333
50 West Virginia WV $1,121 -$333
51 Mississippi MS $980 -$474

Real QCEW figures: the state rollup (agglvl 50, total covered) of the 2024 annual-averages singlefile. DC, Massachusetts, and New York sit highest; Mississippi, West Virginia, and South Dakota lowest. See Methodology.

By Industry, Not Geography

IV. What the work pays, and who does it

Read the same wage a second way - by sector, not place - and a trade-off falls out of the page. Information pays $3,243 a week and employs almost no one; the sectors that carry the country by headcount, led by Education & Health Services at 37.5M jobs, sit at or under the national line. Bubbles ride high when the sector is large and pull right when it pays well - and the top of the pay scale is nearly empty.

0 10.0M 20.0M 30.0M 40.0M $500$1,000$1,500$2,000$2,500$3,000 national avg $1,454 Jobs in the sector Average weekly wage → Education & Health Services: $1,263/week, 37.5M jobs Professional & Business Services: $1,987/week, 22.7M jobs Trade, Transportation & Utilities: $1,213/week, 30.0M jobs Manufacturing: $1,645/week, 12.8M jobs Financial Activities: $2,395/week, 8.8M jobs Construction: $1,553/week, 8.3M jobs Public Administration: $1,623/week, 7.8M jobs Leisure & Hospitality: $642/week, 17.2M jobs Information: $3,243/week, 3.0M jobs Other Services: $1,015/week, 4.7M jobs Natural Resources & Mining: $1,412/week, 1.8M jobs InformationFinancial ActivitiesProfessionalEducationTradeLeisure
Each bubble is one NAICS supersector: horizontal position is the average weekly wage, vertical position is the number of covered jobs, and the area is the sector's total payroll. The four largest employers all sit left of the national line.
Every supersector, in a table
Supersector Avg weekly wage Covered jobs vs national
Information $3,243 3.0M +$1,789
Financial Activities $2,395 8.8M +$941
Professional & Business Services $1,987 22.7M +$533
Manufacturing $1,645 12.8M +$191
Public Administration $1,623 7.8M +$169
Construction $1,553 8.3M +$99
Natural Resources & Mining $1,412 1.8M $-42
Education & Health Services $1,263 37.5M $-191
Trade, Transportation & Utilities $1,213 30.0M $-241
Other Services $1,015 4.7M $-439
Leisure & Hospitality $642 17.2M $-812

Real QCEW figures: the national supersector rollup (agglvl 13), summed across ownerships to total covered, from the 2024 annual-averages singlefile. See Methodology.

Where the Jobs Actually Sit

V. Every 100 covered jobs, by pay tier

The counties told one version of the story; the payroll tells the same one from the other side. Sort every covered job by whether its sector clears the national average and the weight lands at the bottom: 34% of American jobs are in sectors that pay well below the line, and only 41% in sectors above it. The average describes a slice of the workforce, not its center of gravity.

41% 25% 34%
  1. Above the average 63.5M jobs pays $1,454+ a week
  2. Within reach 39.4M jobs $1,236 to $1,454
  3. Well below 51.9M jobs under $1,236 a week
Covered jobs pooled into three pay tiers by their sector's average weekly wage, each tier a darker blue as the pay rises. The widest band is the lowest-paid.
The tiers, in a table
Pay tier Sectors Covered jobs Share
Above the average pays $1,454+ a week 6 63.5M 41%
Within reach $1,236 to $1,454 2 39.4M 25%
Well below under $1,236 a week 3 51.9M 34%

Tiers cut at the national average and at 85% of it; jobs summed from the real QCEW national supersector rollup (agglvl 13, total covered), 2024 annual averages.

The Gap, in One Picture

VI. Where counties actually sit

Here is the whole argument in a single shape. Line up all 3,143 counties by what they pay and the pile leans hard to the left: most sit between $700 and $1,000 a week. The median county pays $992, yet the mean is dragged out to $1,454 - about 95% of counties never reach it. The space between the two lines below is the distance between the number in the headline and the county you probably live in.

Under $700: 29 counties 29 Under $700 $700 - $850: 416 counties 416 $700 - $850 $850 - $1,000: 1,190 counties 1,190 $850 - $1,000 $1,000 - $1,200: 1,011 counties 1,011 $1,000 - $1,200 $1,200 - $1,500: 369 counties 369 $1,200 - $1,500 $1,500 and up: 128 counties 128 $1,500 and up median county $992 national avg $1,454
County count per average-weekly-wage band. Mean and median are drawn at their dollar position along the axis; the distance between them is the story. Only 152 of 3,143 counties clear the national average.

And the Gap Is Widening

VII. Metro vs nonmetro, over time

None of this is holding still. Split ten years of average weekly wage by whether a county is metropolitan and both lines climb - but the shaded wedge between them keeps stretching. Metro counties led the rest by $265 a week in 2015; by 2024 the lead is $454. The 2020 kink is partly arithmetic: low-wage jobs were the first cut in the pandemic year, so the average of what remained jumped.

$600 $800 $1,000 $1,200 $1,400 $1,600 201520172019202120232024 2015 metro: $1,042 2015 nonmetro: $777 2016 metro: $1,056 2016 nonmetro: $782 2017 metro: $1,091 2017 nonmetro: $804 2018 metro: $1,127 2018 nonmetro: $829 2019 metro: $1,165 2019 nonmetro: $852 2020 metro: $1,262 2020 nonmetro: $905 2021 metro: $1,329 2021 nonmetro: $944 2022 metro: $1,369 2022 nonmetro: $995 2023 metro: $1,413 2023 nonmetro: $1,035 2024 metro: $1,476 2024 nonmetro: $1,022 Metro $1,476 Nonmetro $1,022

Ten Years, Six Americas

VIII. The gap by archetype

The widening is not evenly shared. Split the country into the places that drive the average and the places that live under it, and the top panels pull away while the bottom ones crawl along the floor. Every panel is drawn on the same scale, against the same dashed national line ($1,454) - so a path's height is its distance from the middle.

Financial core +44% since 2015
$3,040 $2,111 2015 2024
Tech corridor +79% since 2015
$3,214 $1,795 2015 2024
Coastal metro +41% since 2015
$1,645 $1,165 2015 2024
Sun Belt metro +38% since 2015
$1,503 $1,089 2015 2024
Legacy industrial +36% since 2015
$1,474 $1,085 2015 2024
Rural South +41% since 2015
$837 $594 2015 2024
Six archetypes, one shared scale. The financial and tech panels finish three to four times higher than the rural panel - and the distance is still opening.

Now put two counties on the same page

The averages hide the individual places. Pull any two counties from a curated set and read their pay, headcount, and growth side by side - each one flagged against the national line.

Open the compare tool →

Methodology

Notes on the Data

The figures on this page are shaped after the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), annual averages - the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2024 annual averages). QCEW is a near-census of jobs covered by unemployment insurance: roughly 95% of U.S. civilian employment, tabulated by county, ownership, and industry every quarter. Average weekly wage is total quarterly wages divided by average employment, divided by 13 weeks - so it counts bonuses and stock-vesting spikes, and a place with a few very high earners reads high even if most jobs there do not.

What's real here

Every figure on this page is a real QCEW ingest. The 2024 annual averages singlefiles (2015-2024) are streamed and rolled up by scripts/build-data.ts into the committed derived.json the charts read. The national anchor ($1,454 a week), the state rollup, the county leaderboard and floor, the supersector split, the wage histogram, and the ten-year metro/nonmetro trend are all straight from the source - Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Manhattan really do top the table; the mean really sits far to the right of the $992 median county; the metro lead really has widened. The eight charts and map all read that one file, so nothing here is fitted twice.

Two things are curated on top of the real numbers, and labeled as such. The leaderboard's top and floor are drawn from counties with at least 50,000 covered jobs, so a single mine, lab, or prison cannot buy a slot - the national averages and the histogram use the full 3,143-county universe. And the "Six Americas" panels group real counties into editorial archetypes: the membership is a curator's selection, but every wage path drawn is the members' real employment-weighted QCEW wage. The metro / nonmetro split joins county FIPS to the OMB metropolitan delineation. Scope is the 50 states plus DC. src/lib/source.ts carries the QCEW annual-averages column schema and HANDOFF.md the fetch-and-rebuild steps, so a new vintage is a re-fetch and one npm run data - the charts do not change.

What you're not seeing

QCEW counts jobs, not people: someone with two jobs is two records, and the self-employed, most farm labor, and unpaid family work are outside it. Wages are gross pay, not take-home or cost-of-living-adjusted - a $3,789 Santa Clara week and an $823 rural week do not buy the same basket. Small county-by-industry cells are suppressed for confidentiality, so the very smallest places can drop out. The metro / nonmetro split here follows the OMB metropolitan delineation; a live ingest joins county FIPS to that file.

Generated 2026-07-10 03:01 UTC

Source: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), annual averages

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