Where the
Paychecks Are

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 $1,035 a week and below. The national average of $1,465 is not the color of the country - it is the color of a handful of counties inside the darkest states, averaged over everyone else.

Every state, in a table

State	Avg weekly wage	Covered employment
District of Columbia DC	$2,140	790,000
Massachusetts MA	$1,720	3,720,000
Washington WA	$1,690	3,560,000
New York NY	$1,660	9,560,000
California CA	$1,640	18,100,000
Connecticut CT	$1,600	1,720,000
New Jersey NJ	$1,520	4,300,000
Colorado CO	$1,420	2,900,000
Illinois IL	$1,380	6,120,000
Maryland MD	$1,360	2,760,000
Virginia VA	$1,350	4,030,000
New Hampshire NH	$1,300	690,000
Minnesota MN	$1,300	2,960,000
Texas TX	$1,290	13,500,000
Delaware DE	$1,290	480,000
Georgia GA	$1,270	4,720,000
Alaska AK	$1,250	320,000
Rhode Island RI	$1,250	500,000
Pennsylvania PA	$1,250	5,960,000
Oregon OR	$1,240	1,980,000
Utah UT	$1,210	1,650,000
Arizona AZ	$1,200	3,130,000
North Carolina NC	$1,180	4,650,000
North Dakota ND	$1,180	430,000
Hawaii HI	$1,180	640,000
Florida FL	$1,170	9,800,000
Michigan MI	$1,170	4,380,000
Ohio OH	$1,150	5,480,000
Wisconsin WI	$1,140	2,920,000
Vermont VT	$1,130	310,000
Tennessee TN	$1,130	3,170,000
Wyoming WY	$1,120	280,000
Maine ME	$1,120	640,000
Nevada NV	$1,120	1,480,000
Missouri MO	$1,120	2,870,000
Indiana IN	$1,100	3,140,000
Kansas KS	$1,090	1,420,000
Louisiana LA	$1,090	1,930,000
New Mexico NM	$1,090	850,000
Nebraska NE	$1,080	1,010,000
Oklahoma OK	$1,080	1,660,000
Iowa IA	$1,080	1,590,000
Alabama AL	$1,050	2,060,000
Kentucky KY	$1,050	1,930,000
South Carolina SC	$1,050	2,250,000
South Dakota SD	$1,050	450,000
Idaho ID	$1,030	810,000
Montana MT	$1,020	500,000
West Virginia WV	$1,000	690,000
Arkansas AR	$990	1,290,000
Mississippi MS	$940	1,160,000

Illustrative stand-in figures in real QCEW magnitudes, badged on the page. In a live ingest this table is the state rollup (agglvl 50, total covered) of the QCEW singlefile - see Methodology and HANDOFF.md.

These are the fifteen counties that bend the national number upward, ranked by what the average job pays. The dashed line is the national average of $1,465; 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 New York CountyNY Financial core $4,250
2. 02 San Mateo CountyCA Tech corridor $3,920
3. 03 Santa Clara CountyCA Tech corridor $3,680
4. 04 San Francisco CountyCA Tech corridor $3,010
5. 05 Suffolk CountyMA Coastal metro $2,280
6. 06 King CountyWA Tech corridor $2,260
7. 07 Arlington CountyVA Capital region $2,210
8. 08 Fairfield CountyCT Financial core $2,090
9. 09 Somerset CountyNJ Coastal metro $1,980
10. 10 Alexandria cityVA Capital region $1,950
11. 11 Middlesex CountyMA Coastal metro $1,930
12. 12 Westchester CountyNY Coastal metro $1,720
13. 13 Denver CountyCO Sun Belt metro $1,680
14. 14 Mecklenburg CountyNC Sun Belt metro $1,620
15. 15 Cook CountyIL Legacy industrial $1,490
16. · · national avg $1,465

The map shows where the money is; this shows how lopsided the spread is. Post each state against the national average and only 7 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.

above national average below it (a debit in red ink)

Every state, ranked, in a table

Rank	State	Avg weekly wage	vs national
01	District of Columbia DC	$2,140	+$675
02	Massachusetts MA	$1,720	+$255
03	Washington WA	$1,690	+$225
04	New York NY	$1,660	+$195
05	California CA	$1,640	+$175
06	Connecticut CT	$1,600	+$135
07	New Jersey NJ	$1,520	+$55
08	Colorado CO	$1,420	-$45
09	Illinois IL	$1,380	-$85
10	Maryland MD	$1,360	-$105
11	Virginia VA	$1,350	-$115
12	New Hampshire NH	$1,300	-$165
13	Minnesota MN	$1,300	-$165
14	Texas TX	$1,290	-$175
15	Delaware DE	$1,290	-$175
16	Georgia GA	$1,270	-$195
17	Alaska AK	$1,250	-$215
18	Rhode Island RI	$1,250	-$215
19	Pennsylvania PA	$1,250	-$215
20	Oregon OR	$1,240	-$225
21	Utah UT	$1,210	-$255
22	Arizona AZ	$1,200	-$265
23	North Carolina NC	$1,180	-$285
24	North Dakota ND	$1,180	-$285
25	Hawaii HI	$1,180	-$285
26	Florida FL	$1,170	-$295
27	Michigan MI	$1,170	-$295
28	Ohio OH	$1,150	-$315
29	Wisconsin WI	$1,140	-$325
30	Vermont VT	$1,130	-$335
31	Tennessee TN	$1,130	-$335
32	Wyoming WY	$1,120	-$345
33	Maine ME	$1,120	-$345
34	Nevada NV	$1,120	-$345
35	Missouri MO	$1,120	-$345
36	Indiana IN	$1,100	-$365
37	Kansas KS	$1,090	-$375
38	Louisiana LA	$1,090	-$375
39	New Mexico NM	$1,090	-$375
40	Nebraska NE	$1,080	-$385
41	Oklahoma OK	$1,080	-$385
42	Iowa IA	$1,080	-$385
43	Alabama AL	$1,050	-$415
44	Kentucky KY	$1,050	-$415
45	South Carolina SC	$1,050	-$415
46	South Dakota SD	$1,050	-$415
47	Idaho ID	$1,030	-$435
48	Montana MT	$1,020	-$445
49	West Virginia WV	$1,000	-$465
50	Arkansas AR	$990	-$475
51	Mississippi MS	$940	-$525

Illustrative stand-in figures in real QCEW magnitudes; the relative ranking is real (DC, Massachusetts, Washington high; Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia low). Live ingest: the state rollup, agglvl 50. See Methodology.

Read the same wage a second way - by sector, not place - and a trade-off falls out of the page. Information pays $3,050 a week and employs almost no one; the sectors that carry the country by headcount, led by Trade at 28.0M 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.

pays above the national average pays below it bubble area = total sector payroll

Every supersector, in a table

Supersector	Avg weekly wage	Covered jobs	vs national
Information	$3,050	3.0M	+$1,585
Financial Activities	$2,140	6.9M	+$675
Professional & Business Services	$1,750	22.6M	+$285
Manufacturing	$1,560	12.9M	+$95
Natural Resources & Mining	$1,520	1.9M	+$55
Construction	$1,450	8.0M	$-15
Public Administration	$1,400	7.7M	$-65
Education & Health Services	$1,180	24.9M	$-285
Trade, Transportation & Utilities	$1,150	28.0M	$-315
Other Services	$940	5.4M	$-525
Leisure & Hospitality	$560	16.3M	$-905

Illustrative stand-in figures in real QCEW magnitudes and rankings, badged on the page. A live ingest reads the national supersector rollup (agglvl 14, total covered); see Methodology.

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: 54% of American jobs are in sectors that pay well below the line, and only 34% in sectors above it. The average describes a slice of the workforce, not its center of gravity.

1. Above the average 47.3M jobs pays $1,465+ a week
2. Within reach 15.7M jobs $1,245 to $1,465
3. Well below 74.6M jobs under $1,245 a week

The tiers, in a table

Pay tier	Sectors	Covered jobs	Share
Above the average pays $1,465+ a week	5	47.3M	34%
Within reach $1,245 to $1,465	2	15.7M	11%
Well below under $1,245 a week	4	74.6M	54%

Tiers cut at the national average and at 85% of it; jobs summed from the supersector rollup. Illustrative QCEW-magnitude figures, badged on the page.

Here is the whole argument in a single shape. Line up all 3,120 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 $915, yet the mean is dragged out to $1,465 - 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.

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 $340 a week in 2015; by 2024 the lead is $605. The 2020 kink is partly arithmetic: low-wage jobs were the first cut in the pandemic year, so the average of what remained jumped.

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 ($1,465) - so a path's height is its distance from the middle.