Lowest Average Federal Salary by State
States where federal employees earn the lowest 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.
Utah leads with $87,896 on the avg salary measure - the median of the 51 ranked states is West Virginia at $106,959.
The ranking in one line
Utah leads at $87,896; the #10 cutoff to make this top-10 chart is $99,012, and District of Columbia anchors #51 of this complete states list at $154,024.
- $87,896
- #1 · Utah
- $99,012
- #10 cutoff to make this list
- $154,024
- #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
States with the lowest average federal salaries typically have workforces concentrated in lower-grade field positions, VA hospitals, national parks, agricultural service offices, and Social Security field offices. Lower locality pay adjustments in rural areas also contribute. These rankings do not indicate that federal employees are underpaid relative to local markets, federal pay is designed to be competitive within each locality area.
What the Ranked Data Shows
This ranking covers 51 federal states drawn from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes. The leader is Utah with $87,896 on the "Avg Salary" measure - 0.8× 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, District of Columbia anchors the bottom of the ranked set with $154,024. 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 lowest 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 to fall below $99,012 to rank among the 10 lowest.
Distribution of avg salary across all 51 federal states.
| # | Name | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utah | $87,896 |
| 2 | Wyoming | $88,728 |
| 3 | Montana | $90,083 |
| 4 | South Dakota | $92,120 |
| 5 | Idaho | $92,160 |
| 6 | North Dakota | $94,971 |
| 7 | Mississippi | $95,725 |
| 8 | New Mexico | $96,529 |
| 9 | Missouri | $98,611 |
| 10 | Kentucky | $99,012 |
| 11 | Tennessee | $100,769 |
| 12 | Nebraska | $101,478 |
| 13 | Arkansas | $102,501 |
| 14 | Indiana | $102,913 |
| 15 | Oregon | $103,039 |
| 16 | Louisiana | $103,472 |
| 17 | Alabama | $104,265 |
| 18 | Arizona | $104,382 |
| 19 | Iowa | $104,469 |
| 20 | Kansas | $104,722 |
| 21 | South Carolina | $105,109 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | $105,985 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $106,687 |
| 24 | Oklahoma | $106,785 |
| 25 | Maine | $106,807 |
| 26 | West Virginia | $106,959 |
| 27 | Nevada | $107,573 |
| 28 | Alaska | $108,775 |
| 29 | Michigan | $109,161 |
| 30 | Hawaii | $109,314 |
| 31 | Texas | $110,896 |
| 32 | Florida | $111,473 |
| 33 | North Carolina | $112,595 |
| 34 | Minnesota | $112,696 |
| 35 | Georgia | $113,374 |
| 36 | Ohio | $113,832 |
| 37 | Washington | $116,221 |
| 38 | New York | $116,309 |
| 39 | Delaware | $116,878 |
| 40 | Vermont | $118,036 |
| 41 | Rhode Island | $119,256 |
| 42 | Illinois | $119,378 |
| 43 | Colorado | $120,244 |
| 44 | Massachusetts | $120,785 |
| 45 | New Hampshire | $121,875 |
| 46 | Connecticut | $123,699 |
| 47 | California | $124,322 |
| 48 | New Jersey | $126,642 |
| 49 | Virginia | $134,612 |
| 50 | Maryland | $146,475 |
| 51 | District of Columbia | $154,024 |
Source: Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are federal employees in low-salary states underpaid?
Not necessarily. Federal locality pay is designed to match regional labor markets. A GS-9 in Mississippi has a lower salary than a GS-9 in San Francisco, but the cost of living difference may make the Mississippi position relatively more valuable. OPM annually reviews locality pay comparability.
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.