US States and Territories Ranked by Equal-Weighted Occupation Medians

A derived jurisdiction benchmark: the equal-weighted mean of published occupation-level median wages in BLS OEWS state-area records, with each reported occupation counting once.

Research period:

Compiled by WageDex on 2026-07-29

Research question

Which US state or territory jurisdictions have the highest equal-weighted mean of published occupation-level median wages among jurisdictions with at least 100 reported occupation medians?

Methodology

This ranking is compiled from BLS OEWS state-area records, including states, the District of Columbia, and territories present in the imported table. Jurisdictions without reported occupation medians are excluded rather than shown as zero.

Where BLS suppresses a value (for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control), that record is left out of this ranking rather than displayed as zero. If BLS later revises a figure, the revision appears here automatically the next time WageDex refreshes its data, no manual edit to this page is needed.

This page is compiled through an editorial process before publication, and disputed figures can be corrected through the contact channels in the footer; corrections are reconciled against the official source record before anything changes here.

See the methodology page for the complete data-update process, source vintage, and field definitions.

Key findings

  • District of Columbia leads this equal-weighted jurisdiction benchmark at $89,679, $18,971 above the $70,707 mean across all reported state-area occupation medians.
  • Among the top ten jurisdictions, the equal-weighted occupation-median benchmark spans $78,209 to $89,679.
  • District of Columbia's benchmark uses 464 reported occupation medians, with every occupation receiving equal weight regardless of employment.
  • District of Columbia ranks first on the separate equal-weighted mean-of-occupation-means cut at $94,986; that statistic is distinct from both worker earnings and the median-based ranking.
  • The maintained OEWS state-area snapshot contains reported occupation medians for 54 state, district, or territory jurisdictions.

State and Territory Jurisdictions by Occupation-Median Benchmark

Compiled directly from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

mean of occupation medians
Source U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS As of May 2025

The ranked top 10

Every row below reflects the current 10-record ranking. Refresh the page after WageDex's next data update to see the latest values.

# Jurisdiction Mean of occupation medians Mean of occupation means Occupations covered
1 District of Columbia $89,679 $94,986 464
2 Washington $86,472 $89,814 756
3 New York $83,189 $88,292 776
4 California $83,172 $88,854 793
5 Massachusetts $81,221 $85,161 717
6 New Jersey $80,366 $84,643 736
7 Minnesota $79,901 $82,014 720
8 Alaska $79,599 $82,114 511
9 Maryland $79,476 $82,998 728
10 Rhode Island $78,209 $81,299 544

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS OEWS State Wage Estimates. Values reflect WageDex's current data snapshot and update whenever the underlying dataset is refreshed.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked record in this derived benchmark is District of Columbia, with an equal-weighted mean of reported occupation medians of $89,679. The full top-10 set is shown in the table above. When U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a revision, the ranking updates after WageDex refreshes its data.

Distribution shape

The visible gap runs from $89,679 for the top-ranked jurisdiction to $78,209 for the 10th-ranked jurisdiction. This describes only the spread within the displayed equal-weighted benchmark, not the distribution of worker wages. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

The source snapshot contains 54 state-area jurisdictions with reported occupation medians. Across those occupation records, the equal-weighted mean of the reported medians is $70,707. That figure is another derived occupation-level benchmark; it is not the national median wage for workers.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, specifically the BLS OEWS State Wage Estimates. WageDex recomputes the displayed benchmark from its current imported snapshot. The methodology page documents the source URL, data vintage, and derivation.

Why this ranking matters

This ranking provides a consistent way to compare the mix of reported occupation medians across the included jurisdictions. It does not rank worker earnings or disposable income. The linked pages provide published all-occupations wage measures and local-area context.

What this analysis cannot tell us

This is an equal-weighted mean of occupation-level medians, not a median or mean wage for workers. Each reported occupation counts once regardless of employment, so the result can differ materially from the jurisdiction's published all-occupations wage. The population includes states, the District of Columbia, and US territories present in the current OEWS state-area table. The 100-occupation threshold is an editorial scope filter, not a statistical reliability guarantee.

Secondary cut from the same source

Equal-weighted mean of reported occupation-level mean wages

mean of occupation means
Source U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS As of May 2025

Related data

Sources