Average salary in the US 2026: median pay by state

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes the usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers every quarter. In the second quarter of 2026 (released July 21, 2026):

• Median weekly earnings: $1,251 for the nation's 120.9 million full-time wage and salary workers (not seasonally adjusted)
• A year earlier: $1,196, so the median rose 4.6%, against a 3.9% rise in consumer prices (CPI-U) over the same period
• Men: $1,380 a week
• Women: $1,131 a week, 82.0% of men's median

To turn the weekly figure into a yearly one, multiply by 52: $1,251 × 52 = $65,052 a year, or about $5,421 a month before tax. This is the best single answer to "what does a typical full-time worker earn in the US right now", because it is recent, it covers only full-time jobs and it's a median, not an average.

The Census Bureau's annual report, Income in the United States: 2025, released September 15, 2026, looks at the whole of 2025:

• Median household income: $87,460, up 2.6% from $85,210 in 2024 (in 2025 dollars), the highest on record since the series began in 1967
• Median post-tax household income: $76,060
• Median earnings of full-time, year-round workers: $66,620
• Men working full-time, year-round: $72,380
• Women working full-time, year-round: $60,760, a female-to-male earnings ratio of 83.9%
• Median earnings of all workers, including part-time: $52,770

Household income is higher than individual earnings because many households have more than one earner, and because it includes other income such as Social Security, pensions or interest. If you are comparing your own paycheck, use the earnings figures; if you are comparing what your household brings in, use the household one.

"Average salary" usually means the mean: add up all pay and divide by the number of workers. The median is the middle worker: half earn more, half earn less. In pay data the mean is always pulled up by the highest earners.

The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) show the gap clearly. For May 2025, across all occupations:

• Mean annual wage: $69,770
• Median annual wage: $50,980

The mean is about 37% higher than the median. The OEWS figures cover all jobs, part-time ones included, with pay expressed as a full-year equivalent, which is why the median here is lower than the BLS full-time median above. The Census data show the same skew for households: in 2025, a household at the 90th percentile had $261,300 of income, 13 times the $20,010 at the 10th percentile.

When someone quotes an "average salary", ask whether it's a mean or a median. The median is almost always closer to what a typical person earns.

From the BLS tables for the second quarter of 2026, median weekly earnings of full-time workers by age, with a simple × 52 to annualize:

• 25 to 34: $1,160 a week, about $60,320 a year
• 35 to 44: $1,436 a week, about $74,670 a year
• 45 to 54: $1,421 a week, about $73,890 a year
• 55 to 64: $1,367 a week, about $71,080 a year
• 65 and over: $1,233 a week, about $64,120 a year

Pay rises quickly through the late twenties and thirties, peaks around 35 to 54 and eases after that.

For full-time workers aged 25 and over, the BLS figures for the second quarter of 2026 are:

• Less than a high school diploma: $803 a week, about $41,760 a year
• High school graduate, no college: $994 a week, about $51,690 a year
• Some college or associate degree: $1,125 a week, about $58,500 a year
• Bachelor's degree only: $1,628 a week, about $84,660 a year
• Advanced degree: $1,963 a week, about $102,080 a year
• All workers 25 and over: $1,330 a week, about $69,160 a year

The median for someone with a bachelor's degree or higher ($1,768 a week) is more than double the median for someone without a high school diploma.

For states, the most complete official source is the OEWS survey, which gives the mean (not median) annual wage for all occupations. These are the May 2025 figures, published May 15, 2026.

Highest mean annual wage

• District of Columbia: $111,010
• Massachusetts: $85,610
• Washington: $83,330
• New York: $82,460
• California: $80,690
• New Jersey: $78,040
• Maryland: $77,580
• Connecticut: $77,420
• Colorado: $77,190
• Alaska: $74,720

Lowest mean annual wage

• Mississippi: $50,810
• Arkansas: $54,890
• West Virginia: $56,470
• Louisiana: $56,600
• Oklahoma: $56,950
• Alabama: $57,500

The largest states

• Illinois: $71,130
• Georgia: $65,920
• Texas: $65,750
• Pennsylvania: $65,730
• Michigan: $64,920
• Florida: $64,670
• Ohio: $64,390
• North Carolina: $64,290

Remember that these are means, so the typical worker in each state earns less than the figure shown. And a higher wage doesn't automatically mean more money left over: the states at the top of the list also tend to have the highest housing costs.

What matters for your budget is what lands in your account. Here is a rough example for a single filer earning the BLS full-time median of $65,052, using the IRS figures for tax year 2026 and the Social Security Administration's FICA rates:

• Gross pay: $65,052
• Standard deduction (single, 2026): $16,100, so taxable income is $48,952
• Federal income tax: 10% on the first $12,400 ($1,240) plus 12% on the remaining $36,552 ($4,386), about $5,626
• Social Security: 6.2% of wages up to $184,500, so $4,033
• Medicare: 1.45% of all wages, so $943
• Take-home after federal tax and FICA: about $54,449 a year, or roughly $4,537 a month

This leaves out several things that change the result: state and local income tax (zero in some states, several thousand dollars in others), pre-tax deductions such as 401(k) contributions or health insurance premiums, and any credits you qualify for. Treat it as an order of magnitude, not a payslip.

Knowing the median tells you where you stand, but it doesn't tell you whether your finances are moving in the right direction. Two people on $65,000 can be in opposite situations depending on their rent, their debt and how much they keep each month.

A better number to follow is your own net worth: what you own minus what you owe. It answers the question the national median can't, which is "am I better off than last year?". If you've never worked it out, our guide on how to calculate your net worth takes you through it step by step.

In Neto, an app for iPhone and Android that works without connecting your bank, you log your accounts, income and expenses yourself and the app adds them up into your net worth. It's free to start; tracking investments and debts and seeing how the figure evolves month by month are part of Neto PRO.

Figures checked on 2 October 2026. The BLS updates weekly earnings every quarter (the next release covers the third quarter of 2026), and the Census and OEWS figures are updated once a year.

Sources: BLS, Usual Weekly Earnings, second quarter 2026 · BLS, weekly earnings by age · BLS, weekly earnings by education · Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025 · BLS, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025 · BLS OEWS data by state · IRS, tax year 2026 inflation adjustments · SSA, contribution and benefit base