Average salaries across the US in 2019

INQUIRER.NET U.S. Bureau / 09:00 AM January 02, 2020

Ever been curious about which states have the best pay? Us too. So we compared the average salary in each state to the housing costs to find where salaries go furthest.

Plus, we thought the median wages could help business owners see the amount of payroll taxes they’ll need to handle properly in each state. See why we recommend payroll software?

Top 10 states with the best pay

Rank	State	Median yearly wage	Median monthly rent for 1 BR apartment	Hours of work to afford apartment
1	Wyoming	$40,240	$650	33.6
2	North Dakota	$41,340	$725	36.5
3	West Virginia	$32,640	$600	38.2
4	Alaska	$48,020	$895	38.8
5	Oklahoma	$34,560	$675	40.6
6	Montana	$35,080	$700	41.5
7	South Dakota	$33,450	$675	42.0
8	Iowa	$37,100	$750	42.0
9	Kansas	$35,950	$734	42.5
10	Arkansas	$31,850	$670	43.8

You might have to give up on big-city living to really stretch your salary—all the 10 best states can easily be described as “rural.” But once you know how much further your pay is taking you in these states, will you really miss walking to the corner bodega?

Bottom 10 states with the worst pay

Rank	State	Median yearly wage	Median monthly rent for 1 BR apartment	Hours of work to afford apartment
1	New York	$44,990	$2,199	101.7
2	California	$42,430	$2,022	99.1
3	Massachusetts	$48,680	$2,000	85.5
4	Florida	$34,560	$1,404	84.5
5	Hawaii	$42,480	$1,720	84.2
6	Washington	$46,100	$1,783	80.4
7	New Jersey	$43,600	$1,670	79.7
8	Virginia	$40,820	$1,510	76.9
9	Illinois	$39,950	$1,457	75.8
10	Georgia	$35,950	$1,275	73.8

You’re probably not surprised by the bottom 10. After all, cities like Seattle, Boston, and New York City have notoriously high housing prices. Oh, and all of Hawaii too.

In fact, the only surprise is that California didn’t come dead last. In San Francisco, it takes 100 hours to afford a one-bedroom apartment. You’ll do slightly better in San Diego (91 hours), and even better in Riverside (85 hours), but let’s just say it’s no Wyoming.

Salaries, schmalaries

Look, salaries matter. But they’re not all that matters. Because sure, you might earn more in some states—but you’re not getting more for the money.

Methodology

To create our ranking, we calculated how many hours at the median hourly wage it took to afford the median one-bedroom apartment in each state. Median wage data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Median one-bedroom cost was sourced from Zillow.com. Each data point is from 05/2018.

The takeaway

Unless you’re willing—and can afford—to pay an in-house bookkeeper, we recommend most small businesses outsource at least some of their payroll tasks to a third party. Payroll software providers remove much of the hassle, cost, and risk from managing payroll and free you to do what you’re meant to be doing: growing a successful business.

Looking for great accounting software to complement your payroll software? Read through our list of the year’s best accounting software for small businesses.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.

Sources