Median Household Income by State: 2026 BLS Data

Massachusetts households sit at a median income of $104,828 — nearly $46,000 above Mississippi’s $59,127, the widest state-to-state gap in Census Bureau data going back to 2005. That spread, confirmed in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates published in September 2025, is the benchmark against which any salary claim about a specific state needs to be calibrated.

Key Numbers at a Glance

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-year estimates, ACSBR-025 (Sept. 2025); Census Bureau CPS ASEC P60-286 (Sept. 2025); BLS OEWS May 2025 national release (May 15, 2026).

What the State Rankings Actually Show

Five states crossed the $100,000 median household income threshold in 2024: Massachusetts ($104,828), New Jersey ($104,294), Maryland ($102,905), Hawaii ($100,745), and California ($100,149). The Census Bureau notes that Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland are statistically indistinguishable from each other — their differences are within ACS sampling margins of error. The same caution applies throughout the ranking; states separated by a few thousand dollars should not be treated as meaningfully different.

The geography of the top tier is not accidental. The Northeast corridor from Maryland to Massachusetts concentrates financial services, biotech, law, consulting, and proximity to federal contracting markets. California and Washington ($99,389) reflect the technology sector’s long compression of wage growth into a narrow professional class. Hawaii’s $100,745 reflects something different — a high cost of living pulling wages up to sustain basic household viability, not a particularly robust labor market composition.

The bottom tier tells a consistent story. Mississippi ($59,127), West Virginia ($60,798), Louisiana ($60,986), Arkansas ($62,106), and Kentucky ($64,526) all sit more than 20% below the national ACS median of $81,604. Several of these states posted real year-over-year income increases — Mississippi was up 6.0% from 2023 and West Virginia up 5.6% — but the base is low enough that those gains compress the gap only modestly in absolute dollar terms.

For reading BLS salary data accurately, the median household figure is a starting point, not an endpoint. Household income includes all earners in a unit — two people each earning $40,000 produce the same household number as one person earning $80,000, which is a crucial distinction when benchmarking individual compensation.

Full State Ranking: 2024 ACS Median Household Income

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, ACSBR-025 (released September 11, 2025). Figures in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars. D.C. is listed separately as a non-state jurisdiction. Tennessee row shows a formatting correction; value is $71,997. Percent changes compare 2024 ACS to 2023 ACS in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. Small differences in rank between adjacent states may not be statistically significant given ACS margins of error.

The Overlooked Data Point: Growth Rate vs. Income Level

The coverage most readers encounter focuses on rankings — who’s first, who’s last. What the 2024 ACS data actually shows that tends to get less attention: the fastest year-over-year real income growth is concentrated at the bottom of the ranking, not the top.

Mississippi grew 6.0% in real median household income from 2023 to 2024. West Virginia grew 5.6%. Alaska grew 7.3% — the largest real increase of any state in the dataset. Against that, New Hampshire barely moved (+0.1%), and Virginia and Minnesota each contracted slightly (−0.5%). The states posting real growth above 5% are, almost without exception, states that remain well below the national median of $81,604.

This matters for anyone tracking compensation markets. High-income states are not where real wage pressure is accelerating — lower-cost states with historically low bases are. That has implications for remote worker salary geographic differences and for companies pricing roles in markets outside coastal metros. The compression effect is real, but it’s moving slowly; Alaska’s 7.3% growth took it from roughly $89,000 in 2023 to $95,665 in 2024 — not enough to displace Connecticut or Colorado.

Finluxy Compensation Percentile: Where $150k Sits in Each State

The Finluxy Compensation Percentile for this article benchmarks a $150,000 household income — a single earner at that level, or the relevant threshold for Finluxy’s target readership — against the BLS OEWS May 2025 national wage distribution and the ACS state-level medians.

Nationally, the BLS OEWS May 2025 release (published May 15, 2026) puts the all-occupations median annual wage at $51,000. The mean annual wage across all occupations is $69,770. A $150,000 base salary for a single worker sits above the 90th percentile for all workers nationally — the BLS does not publish a precise 90th-percentile figure for “all occupations” combined, but occupational data consistently show that only management, legal, technology, and senior finance roles reach that level at the 75th percentile or above nationally.

Against state household income medians, the picture is more nuanced. A $150,000 household income in Mississippi — where the state median is $59,127 — places that household at a dramatically different local percentile than the same income in Massachusetts, where the median is $104,828 and the upper half of the distribution is much more compressed at higher dollar values. The table below shows the Finluxy Compensation Percentile for a $150,000 total compensation package (single-earner household) positioned against key state medians and BLS national wage data.

Sources: Finluxy Compensation Percentile calculations based on U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 1-year estimates (ACSBR-025, September 2025) and BLS OEWS May 2025 national wage data (released May 15, 2026). State household income percentile estimates are derived from state median multiples and are approximations; precise state percentile distributions require ACS microdata from the Census Bureau’s Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). Individual wage percentile (national) uses BLS OEWS all-occupations data. Household income percentile positions are estimates and should be read as ranges, not precise figures.

The practical implication: a $150,000 base salary positions a single earner above the 90th percentile for individual wages nationally. But as a household income figure in Massachusetts or California, the same number is meaningfully closer to the state’s median — because those states have large concentrations of dual-income households and a compressed income distribution at the upper end. For a deeper look at how to apply these benchmarks to your own offer, the salary benchmarking guide for $150k+ earners walks through the methodology.

What Drives the Northeast Advantage

The five highest-income states by ACS median all share structural characteristics that are worth separating from marketing narratives about “business-friendly climates.” Massachusetts ($104,828) draws heavily from biotech, financial services, higher education, and professional services concentrated in the Boston–Cambridge metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The state’s labor force is among the most credentialed in the country — and finance salary benchmarks in the $150k to $500k range are disproportionately driven by the Massachusetts and New York corridors.

New Jersey’s $104,294 is partly an artifact of its position as a commuter state for New York City finance and pharmaceutical corridor employment. Maryland’s $102,905 reflects federal government employment, federal contracting, and proximity to D.C. — which at $109,707 has the highest median of any jurisdiction, driven by government, law, and policy professionals. These are not diversified economies with broad-based high wages; they are economies with concentrated high-wage sectors pulling the median upward.

California ($100,149) deserves its own note. The state median crossing $100,000 for the first time in the 2024 ACS reflects technology sector compensation compressing outward from Silicon Valley, but the distribution is extremely uneven. The San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara MSA operates at a different wage level than the Central Valley. A software engineer salary comparison across cities shows this variance clearly: the same title carries dramatically different compensation in San Jose versus Sacramento.

The Middle of the Distribution: Where Most States Actually Sit

Thirty-two states have a 2024 ACS median household income between $70,000 and $87,534 — from the low end near Tennessee ($71,997) to the high end near Delaware ($87,534). This is the broad middle of American household income, and it’s where the national policy conversation about “middle class” households is actually anchored.

Several states in this range deserve specific attention for high-earning professionals making location decisions. Texas ($79,721) and Florida ($77,735) have no state income tax, which compresses the after-tax effective difference between their medians and higher-median states considerably. The median household income figures do not reflect after-tax income — a Texas household at $150k takes home materially more than a California household at $150k after state taxes, despite California’s higher pre-tax median. This is the exact tradeoff that makes the gap between $100k and $150k income more complex than the gross figures suggest.

Colorado ($97,113) and Utah ($96,658) round out the top 10 states, and both are notable for hosting growing technology and professional services sectors outside the traditional coastal corridors. For professionals in product management or technology roles benchmarked against non-tech peers, these Mountain West markets offer a different compensation calculus than San Francisco or New York.

The $150k+ Household in This Data

A household earning $150,000 sits comfortably above the national ACS median of $81,604 — roughly 1.84 times the median. That multiple understates the actual position in the income distribution, because the upper tail of the household income distribution is long: a $150,000 household is likely near the 80th percentile nationally once the full distribution is considered, not merely 84% above the median.

For relocation or compensation negotiation decisions, the state medians clarify the frame but don’t close it. A $150k gross household income in Mississippi places that household at approximately 2.54 times the state median — locally wealthy by most measures. The same income in California is 1.50 times the state median in a market where housing costs, state income taxes, and the concentration of high earners in the professional sectors mean that the purchasing power advantage erodes quickly. Total compensation versus base salary comparisons matter more in high-median states precisely because the benefits, equity, and tax efficiency of a package vary more at higher income levels.

Professionals evaluating offers across state lines — particularly those in VP, director, and C-suite roles — should treat the state median as one input, not a conclusion. VP and director salary benchmarks by industry show that within-state dispersion at the senior level often exceeds the state-to-state median gap. A VP of engineering in Austin sits in a very different compensation band than a VP of marketing in Austin, despite being in the same state and subject to the same tax treatment.

The strategic value of this data for $150k+ earners is in the relocation and negotiation framing: knowing that $150k is locally elite in Mississippi but merely upper-middle in Massachusetts is not a case for moving — it’s a case for pricing your role and negotiating equity compensation and RSU grants that compound the base salary advantage regardless of geography. For professionals considering consulting or firm-based roles, consulting salary tiers by firm level show how the state-by-state income disparity interacts with firm-specific compensation structures.