Engineers earn the most in New Mexico, Alaska and California before cost of living, and in New Mexico, Louisiana and Alaska once you adjust for it. Across the four largest engineering occupations (mechanical, electrical, civil and industrial), the typical engineer in New Mexico earns a median of $137,055, about 28% above the U.S. figure of $107,005. After adjusting for local prices, that is worth $148,650.
California pays the second-highest raw salaries, at $130,510, but high prices pull it down to #7 on purchasing power. Texas, home to more engineers in these four fields than any state except California, ranks #12 on pay and #10 after cost of living. Below is every state, built from Apollo Technical’s own salary calculator data.
Key takeaways
- New Mexico has the highest engineering pay in the U.S.: a $137,055 average median across mechanical, electrical, civil and industrial engineers.
- Adjusted for cost of living, New Mexico ($148,650), Louisiana ($133,659) and Alaska ($127,332) give engineers the most buying power.
- California pays $130,510 before cost of living (#2) but drops to #7 after it.
- Electrical engineers are the best paid of the four, with a U.S. median of $120,630, versus $104,110 for mechanical, $102,440 for industrial and $100,840 for civil.
- Texas has 108,800 engineers in these four fields, second only to California’s 142,620, and pays $110,820, about 4% above the national figure.
- New York, New Jersey, Hawaii and Florida fall into the bottom ten once living costs are counted.
- Pay figures are BLS medians for May 2025; cost of living uses BEA Regional Price Parities for 2024.
Engineering job market this month
US architecture and engineering firms employed 1,778,800 people in September 2026, up 45,000 (2.6%) from a year earlier and up 5,800 from August.
This counts everyone employed at firms whose main business is architecture, engineering or related services, from engineers to drafters, surveyors and office staff. Engineers who work for manufacturers, utilities or government are counted in those industries instead. The latest two months are preliminary and BLS revises them. The pay figures in this guide come from the BLS annual wage survey, which updates once a year. Source: BLS Current Employment Statistics, seasonally adjusted (engineering employment, unemployment rate). Updates automatically each month, usually on the first Friday.
Which states pay engineers the most in 2026?
Ranked by raw salary, the top ten states for engineering pay are below. The figure for each state is the average of the BLS median salaries for mechanical, electrical, civil and industrial engineers there. These four occupations make up about 1.23 million U.S. jobs, about two-thirds of all engineers.
New Mexico’s lead is striking. Many of the state’s engineers work at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and Los Alamos National Laboratory, two large federal research employers. New Mexico’s median mechanical engineer earns $157,710 and its median electrical engineer $158,520, both the highest of any state.
At the other end, Arkansas ($90,118), Montana ($94,762) and South Dakota ($94,815) post the lowest raw pay. Lower salaries there partly reflect lower living costs, which is why the adjusted ranking below looks so different.
Where do engineers earn the most after cost of living?
A $120,000 salary goes much further in Baton Rouge than in San Jose. To compare like with like, we divided each state’s pay by its Regional Price Parity from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which measures how prices there compare with the U.S. average (100). A state with prices 10% above average needs 10% more pay to match.
Louisiana jumps from #6 to #2. Its engineers are paid well, and prices are 12% below the national average. The state is also a major center for refining and petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast. Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Iowa make similar leaps. Our oil refinery jobs guide covers the plants behind Louisiana’s numbers.
| State | Raw pay rank | Adjusted rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa | #40 | #12 | +28 |
| Mississippi | #36 | #9 | +27 |
| North Dakota | #44 | #19 | +25 |
| Oklahoma | #32 | #8 | +24 |
| South Dakota | #48 | #27 | +21 |
| Nebraska | #42 | #21 | +21 |
| New Jersey | #11 | #43 | -32 |
| Hawaii | #18 | #50 | -32 |
| New York | #16 | #46 | -30 |
| Connecticut | #22 | #44 | -22 |
| New Hampshire | #14 | #33 | -19 |
| Rhode Island | #15 | #32 | -17 |
The states that fall furthest are the expensive coastal ones. New Jersey drops from #11 to #43, Hawaii from #18 to #50 and New York from #16 to #46. Their engineers earn more in dollars, but less in what those dollars buy.
Engineering salary by state: the full table
Every state, sorted by cost-of-living-adjusted pay. The four discipline columns are BLS median annual salaries; a dash means BLS did not publish a figure for that state.
| Rank (adjusted) | State | Mechanical | Electrical | Civil | Industrial | Average | Price level | Adjusted pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | $157,710 | $158,520 | $103,900 | $128,090 | $137,055 | 92.2 | $148,650 |
| 2 | Louisiana | $119,540 | $123,710 | $105,380 | $122,920 | $117,888 | 88.2 | $133,659 |
| 3 | Alaska | $124,340 | $125,970 | $114,730 | $156,510 | $130,388 | 102.4 | $127,332 |
| 4 | Alabama | $100,230 | $125,630 | $99,010 | $99,880 | $106,188 | 88.8 | $119,581 |
| 5 | Wyoming | $117,750 | $111,740 | $90,590 | $122,070 | $110,538 | 92.7 | $119,242 |
| 6 | Delaware | $125,130 | $126,970 | $100,220 | $120,190 | $118,128 | 99.8 | $118,364 |
| 7 | California | $130,900 | $144,040 | $122,500 | $124,600 | $130,510 | 110.7 | $117,895 |
| 8 | Oklahoma | $101,850 | $107,760 | $98,760 | $97,510 | $101,470 | 87.8 | $115,569 |
| 9 | Mississippi | $98,000 | $104,990 | $100,170 | $95,830 | $99,748 | 87.0 | $114,652 |
| 10 | Texas | $112,410 | $129,450 | $96,860 | $104,560 | $110,820 | 97.1 | $114,130 |
| 11 | West Virginia | $97,390 | $113,420 | $86,930 | $108,360 | $101,525 | 89.5 | $113,436 |
| 12 | Iowa | $97,700 | $105,820 | $96,430 | $97,690 | $99,410 | 87.8 | $113,223 |
| 13 | Missouri | $99,330 | $118,670 | $92,750 | $99,290 | $102,510 | 90.8 | $112,896 |
| 14 | Washington | $110,430 | $132,710 | $110,000 | $129,050 | $120,548 | 107.0 | $112,661 |
| 15 | Oregon | $103,470 | $125,160 | $105,250 | $128,290 | $115,542 | 103.4 | $111,743 |
| 16 | Maryland | $122,870 | $125,150 | $100,680 | $119,930 | $117,158 | 105.0 | $111,579 |
| 17 | Colorado | $124,430 | $120,760 | $101,420 | $109,750 | $114,090 | 103.1 | $110,660 |
| 18 | Idaho | $93,190 | $129,340 | $98,030 | $100,840 | $105,350 | 95.5 | $110,314 |
| 19 | North Dakota | $86,330 | $110,810 | $98,190 | $96,940 | $98,068 | 89.0 | $110,188 |
| 20 | Kentucky | $101,050 | $98,550 | $100,930 | $96,820 | $99,338 | 90.2 | $110,130 |
| 21 | Nebraska | $88,060 | $107,260 | $103,150 | $98,170 | $99,160 | 90.1 | $110,055 |
| 22 | Massachusetts | $119,300 | $127,720 | $106,730 | $109,420 | $115,792 | 105.8 | $109,445 |
| 23 | North Carolina | $100,720 | $110,130 | $100,730 | $99,310 | $102,722 | 94.3 | $108,932 |
| 24 | Tennessee | $99,550 | $104,450 | $95,910 | $99,080 | $99,748 | 91.9 | $108,539 |
| 25 | South Carolina | $104,580 | $98,440 | $101,600 | $101,060 | $101,420 | 93.7 | $108,239 |
| 26 | Maine | $102,430 | $114,620 | $97,820 | $101,030 | $103,975 | 97.1 | $107,080 |
| 27 | South Dakota | $88,380 | $98,980 | $98,700 | $93,200 | $94,815 | 88.6 | $107,015 |
| 28 | Kansas | $86,260 | $102,630 | $96,880 | $99,830 | $96,400 | 90.1 | $106,992 |
| 29 | Ohio | $99,100 | $100,620 | $96,220 | $100,060 | $99,000 | 92.8 | $106,681 |
| 30 | Indiana | $99,590 | $102,670 | $98,270 | $97,480 | $99,502 | 93.3 | $106,648 |
| 31 | Vermont | $107,330 | $111,310 | $95,600 | $103,010 | $104,312 | 98.0 | $106,441 |
| 32 | Rhode Island | $116,230 | – | $99,300 | $109,350 | $108,293 | 102.3 | $105,859 |
| 33 | New Hampshire | $103,660 | $135,710 | $98,710 | $101,310 | $109,848 | 104.2 | $105,420 |
| 34 | Michigan | $104,890 | $106,070 | $92,100 | $101,680 | $101,185 | 96.2 | $105,182 |
| 35 | Minnesota | $99,140 | $109,510 | $101,480 | $102,660 | $103,198 | 98.6 | $104,663 |
| 36 | Virginia | $104,180 | $119,030 | $97,120 | $102,550 | $105,720 | 101.1 | $104,570 |
| 37 | Nevada | $102,680 | $107,400 | $104,310 | $102,090 | $104,120 | 100.0 | $104,120 |
| 38 | Pennsylvania | $97,920 | $110,820 | $97,850 | $99,560 | $101,538 | 97.6 | $104,034 |
| 39 | Arkansas | $80,180 | $96,860 | $85,020 | $98,410 | $90,118 | 86.9 | $103,703 |
| 40 | Utah | $102,500 | $105,720 | $96,830 | $103,940 | $102,248 | 98.9 | $103,385 |
| 41 | Wisconsin | $95,870 | $99,700 | $94,600 | $96,980 | $96,788 | 94.1 | $102,856 |
| 42 | Illinois | $102,680 | $107,860 | $99,760 | $100,540 | $102,710 | 100.0 | $102,710 |
| 43 | New Jersey | $112,300 | $125,370 | $104,660 | $103,840 | $111,542 | 108.8 | $102,521 |
| 44 | Connecticut | $105,090 | $104,160 | $103,150 | $104,160 | $104,140 | 103.6 | $100,521 |
| 45 | Montana | $94,190 | $87,360 | $93,070 | $104,430 | $94,762 | 94.6 | $100,172 |
| 46 | New York | $102,440 | $119,010 | $103,760 | $102,640 | $106,962 | 107.9 | $99,131 |
| 47 | Arizona | $100,270 | $100,550 | $89,660 | $108,280 | $99,690 | 100.7 | $98,997 |
| 48 | Georgia | $100,620 | – | $84,240 | $100,100 | $94,987 | 96.3 | $98,636 |
| 49 | Florida | $99,980 | $104,780 | $98,570 | $101,610 | $101,235 | 103.4 | $97,906 |
| 50 | Hawaii | $98,740 | $106,350 | $94,280 | $123,800 | $105,792 | 110.0 | $96,175 |
Which engineering disciplines pay the most, and where?
Nationally, electrical engineers lead the four largest disciplines at a $120,630 median, about $16,500 more than mechanical engineers. Civil engineers earn the least of the four, but there are more of them: 367,840 jobs, versus 296,810 mechanical engineers.
| Discipline | U.S. jobs | 10th percentile | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical | 198,750 | $76,550 | $92,830 | $120,630 | $152,950 | $184,300 |
| Mechanical | 296,810 | $73,990 | $84,130 | $104,110 | $132,590 | $164,340 |
| Industrial | 365,740 | $74,370 | $83,600 | $102,440 | $129,250 | $159,860 |
| Civil | 367,840 | $68,240 | $79,930 | $100,840 | $129,680 | $163,220 |
Highest-paying states for mechanical engineers
| Rank | State | Median salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | $157,710 |
| 2 | California | $130,900 |
| 3 | Delaware | $125,130 |
| 4 | Colorado | $124,430 |
| 5 | Alaska | $124,340 |
Highest-paying states for electrical engineers
| Rank | State | Median salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | $158,520 |
| 2 | California | $144,040 |
| 3 | New Hampshire | $135,710 |
| 4 | Washington | $132,710 |
| 5 | Texas | $129,450 |
Highest-paying states for civil engineers
| Rank | State | Median salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $122,500 |
| 2 | Alaska | $114,730 |
| 3 | Washington | $110,000 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | $106,730 |
| 5 | Louisiana | $105,380 |
Highest-paying states for industrial engineers
| Rank | State | Median salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska | $156,510 |
| 2 | Washington | $129,050 |
| 3 | Oregon | $128,290 |
| 4 | New Mexico | $128,090 |
| 5 | California | $124,600 |
For pay by metro area, experience level and dozens more roles, including controls engineers, CAD designers and supply chain jobs, use the Apollo salary calculator. Our list of the highest-paid engineering jobs covers the specialties that pay above these four.
Which states employ the most engineers?
High pay is only half the picture. Most engineering jobs sit in a handful of large states. California and Texas alone account for about 21% of the mechanical, electrical, civil and industrial engineers counted by BLS.
Michigan stands out. With 84,220 engineers in these fields, it ranks third, ahead of far larger states, because of the auto industry. Michigan alone employs 34,630 mechanical engineers, more than any other state, including California.
How do Southeast and Texas markets compare?
Apollo Technical recruits engineers across Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida and Illinois. Here is how those states compare. Texas pays best of the group in raw terms, while Alabama offers the strongest buying power thanks to Huntsville’s aerospace and defense employers and low living costs.
| State | Average median pay | Raw rank | Price level | Adjusted pay | Adjusted rank | Engineers (4 fields) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | $110,820 | #12 | 97.1 | $114,130 | #10 | 108,800 |
| Georgia | $94,987 | #47 | 96.3 | $98,636 | #48 | 23,630 |
| North Carolina | $102,722 | #26 | 94.3 | $108,932 | #23 | 41,040 |
| South Carolina | $101,420 | #33 | 93.7 | $108,239 | #25 | 24,410 |
| Florida | $101,235 | #34 | 103.4 | $97,906 | #49 | 57,760 |
| Illinois | $102,710 | #27 | 100.0 | $102,710 | #42 | 49,800 |
| Tennessee | $99,748 | #37 | 91.9 | $108,539 | #24 | 19,990 |
| Alabama | $106,188 | #17 | 88.8 | $119,581 | #4 | 17,620 |
Georgia’s position deserves a caveat. BLS did not publish a statewide electrical engineer median for Georgia, so its average leans on civil engineering, where Georgia’s median ($84,240) is the lowest of any state. Metro Atlanta pays more than the state figure suggests: the salary calculator shows Atlanta figures by role.
What does engineering salary by state mean for employers?
- Benchmark locally, not nationally. State medians for the same job differ by more than $50,000. An offer that is competitive in Arkansas can be $40,000 short in California.
- Remote and relocating candidates compare buying power. An engineer moving from New Jersey to Texas can take a smaller paycheck and still come out ahead. Show candidates the cost-of-living math.
- Electrical and power engineers command a premium. They are the best-paid of the four big disciplines, with a national median about $16,500 above mechanical engineers. Our engineering shortage statistics show which disciplines have the most openings per new graduate.
- Specialized employers set the local ceiling. National labs in New Mexico, refineries in Louisiana and aerospace in Alabama pull state medians up. If you compete with them for talent, budget toward their pay, not the state average.
- Medians are midpoints. Experienced engineers sit at the 75th percentile and above. For senior hires, the 75th to 90th percentile range is the realistic target.
Recruiter tip: When a candidate turns down an offer over pay, check the 75th percentile for their role and metro before raising the base. Many lost offers are priced at the state median for someone with ten years of experience. Matching the right percentile, not the right state, usually closes the gap.
Apollo Technical has recruited engineers since 2010. See our engineering staffing agency, electrical engineering recruiters, mechanical engineering recruiters and civil engineering recruiters, or tell us about a role you need to fill.
Methodology and sources
Salary figures are median annual wages from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, for mechanical (17-2141), electrical (17-2071), civil (17-2051) and industrial (17-2112) engineers. These are the same files that power the Apollo salary calculator.
Each state’s figure is the simple average of the four medians. It is not a weighted average, so it treats each discipline equally rather than by headcount. Where BLS did not publish a median (electrical engineers in Georgia and Rhode Island), the average uses the remaining three. The District of Columbia is shown separately and is not ranked.
Cost-of-living adjustment divides pay by the state’s all-items Regional Price Parity for 2024 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S. = 100). For reference, the District of Columbia averages $120,870 before and $109,982 after cost of living. Employment counts are BLS estimates and are rounded; BLS withheld Alabama’s mechanical engineer count, so Alabama’s total is understated.
