Highest Average Federal Salary by State
States where federal employees earn the highest average salary.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management FedScope dataset (June 2026), this ranking draws on 1,953,300 federal civilian employees across 126 agencies and 51 state/DC geographies - see our methodology for how the figures are computed.
District of Columbia leads with $154,024 on the avg salary measure - the median of the 51 ranked states is West Virginia at $106,959.
The ranking in one line
District of Columbia leads at $154,024; the #10 cutoff to make this top-10 chart is $119,378, and Utah anchors #51 of this complete states list at $87,896.
- $154,024
- #1 · District of Columbia
- $119,378
- #10 cutoff to make this list
- $87,896
- #51 · bottom of this complete list
- $106,959
- median · West Virginia
OPM FedScope June 2026. Values are the "Avg Salary" measure for every ranked state in this extract.
What This Ranking Tells Us
Federal salary rankings by state reflect locality pay adjustments, the mix of occupations and grade levels, and cost of living. Washington, D.C. leads due to the concentration of senior-level positions and GS-15 roles. States with specialized federal operations (energy laboratories, intelligence agencies, financial regulators) also tend to have higher averages. These differences are partly structural, states with mostly GS-5 through GS-9 positions (field offices, VA hospitals) will naturally average lower than states with concentrated GS-13+ headquarters staff.
What the Ranked Data Shows
This ranking covers 51 federal states drawn from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes. The leader is District of Columbia with $154,024 on the "Avg Salary" measure - 1.4× the median state ($106,959). Federal workforce data of this kind is widely used by USAJOBS applicants, congressional staff, and GAO analysts to understand where federal hiring and compensation are concentrated across the country.
The median state in this list is West Virginia at $106,959, illustrating the midpoint of the distribution. At the other end, Utah anchors the bottom of the ranked set with $87,896. The spread between leader and trailing positions is what matters most for policy: it shows how unevenly federal employment, compensation, and tenure are distributed across jurisdictions and departments, and where shifts in locality pay, mission assignments, or hiring freezes would bite hardest.
For job seekers evaluating federal career moves on USAJOBS, these rankings inform strategic choices: a higher-salary state or agency often signals concentrated senior-grade positions, while a large-headcount jurisdiction points to broader entry-level opportunity. Combined with length-of-service patterns, the ranking gives a practical view of where the federal workforce is most durable and where turnover creates openings. Data sourced from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope and refreshed as OPM publishes new semi-annual FedScope releases.
The top 10 federal states by avg salary, OPM FedScope.
The bar to make this list
How avg salary is distributed across all 51 states - most cluster in the middle, with a long tail at the top. A state needs about $119,378 to reach the top 10.
Distribution of avg salary across all 51 federal states.
| # | Name | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $154,024 |
| 2 | Maryland | $146,475 |
| 3 | Virginia | $134,612 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $126,642 |
| 5 | California | $124,322 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $123,699 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $121,875 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | $120,785 |
| 9 | Colorado | $120,244 |
| 10 | Illinois | $119,378 |
| 11 | Rhode Island | $119,256 |
| 12 | Vermont | $118,036 |
| 13 | Delaware | $116,878 |
| 14 | New York | $116,309 |
| 15 | Washington | $116,221 |
| 16 | Ohio | $113,832 |
| 17 | Georgia | $113,374 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $112,696 |
| 19 | North Carolina | $112,595 |
| 20 | Florida | $111,473 |
| 21 | Texas | $110,896 |
| 22 | Hawaii | $109,314 |
| 23 | Michigan | $109,161 |
| 24 | Alaska | $108,775 |
| 25 | Nevada | $107,573 |
| 26 | West Virginia | $106,959 |
| 27 | Maine | $106,807 |
| 28 | Oklahoma | $106,785 |
| 29 | Wisconsin | $106,687 |
| 30 | Pennsylvania | $105,985 |
| 31 | South Carolina | $105,109 |
| 32 | Kansas | $104,722 |
| 33 | Iowa | $104,469 |
| 34 | Arizona | $104,382 |
| 35 | Alabama | $104,265 |
| 36 | Louisiana | $103,472 |
| 37 | Oregon | $103,039 |
| 38 | Indiana | $102,913 |
| 39 | Arkansas | $102,501 |
| 40 | Nebraska | $101,478 |
| 41 | Tennessee | $100,769 |
| 42 | Kentucky | $99,012 |
| 43 | Missouri | $98,611 |
| 44 | New Mexico | $96,529 |
| 45 | Mississippi | $95,725 |
| 46 | North Dakota | $94,971 |
| 47 | Idaho | $92,160 |
| 48 | South Dakota | $92,120 |
| 49 | Montana | $90,083 |
| 50 | Wyoming | $88,728 |
| 51 | Utah | $87,896 |
Source: Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do federal salaries vary so much by state?
Federal pay includes locality adjustments that account for regional cost of living differences. The GS pay scale has over 50 locality pay areas with adjustments ranging from 17% to 44% above the base rate. Additionally, the mix of grade levels varies by state, headquarters locations have more senior positions than field offices.
What is the average federal employee salary?
The average federal civilian salary is approximately $100,000-$110,000 nationally. This varies significantly by state, agency, occupation, and grade level. Entry-level GS-5 positions start around $35,000-$42,000, while senior GS-15 positions can exceed $170,000 depending on locality.
Explore More Rankings
Download the 51-jurisdiction duty-station extract: federal-workforce-by-state.csv (same extract as /statistics).
PlainGovJobs is rendered directly from OPM FedScope federal-workforce data, figures are sourced from published program rules and verified against primary sources. The ranking table, chart, and summary line above are computed live from OPM FedScope employment records; the explanatory narrative and FAQ answers are editorial context, not live queries. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of June 2026. OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.