Project Manager Salary Guide 2026
Published: May 21, 2026 | Category: Salary Guides | By Qualora Career Advisors
Project management specialist pay is strong across big states, but the spread is real. This BLS May 2024 guide compares five large hiring markets.
Quick answer
This guide uses exact Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024 state rows for Project Management Specialists (SOC 13-1082). In this five-state sample, the highest published mean annual wage is New York at $121,040 mean annual pay, the lowest is Texas at $99,820 mean annual pay, and the largest published employment base is Texas with 116,240 employed project management specialists.
That does not mean every beginner in that state will earn that number. These are BLS wage figures for all workers in the occupation, and the state table publishes mean wages rather than a state-by-state median for this guide.
BLS May 2024 state wage table
| State | Mean Annual Wage | Mean Hourly Wage | Employment | Employment per 1,000 | Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $120,920 | $58.14 | 113,980 | 6.312 | 0.97 |
| Texas | $99,820 | $47.99 | 116,240 | 8.394 | 1.29 |
| Florida | $103,250 | $49.64 | 65,890 | 6.709 | 1.03 |
| New York | $121,040 | $58.19 | 68,340 | 7.163 | 1.10 |
| Pennsylvania | $101,640 | $48.87 | 34,130 | 5.676 | 0.87 |
What the five-state table says
New York and California are essentially tied at the top on wages, with New York at $121,040 and California at $120,920. That means the premium market in this sample is coastal, not evenly spread across all big states.
Texas has the biggest employment base at 116,240 workers and the strongest published location quotient at 1.29. In plain English: it is a very large PM hiring market even though its mean wage trails New York and California.
Florida ($103,250) and Pennsylvania ($101,640) sit close together on wages, but Florida shows much stronger concentration and scale with 65,890 jobs versus Pennsylvania's 34,130.
How to read this guide without overpromising
A state wage table is useful, but it is not a salary guarantee. Employers still pay differently based on experience, specialty, shift, industry, metro area, and whether the job is closer to entry-level support work or more advanced production work.
The other important detail is that this page uses state mean annual wage and state mean hourly wage from the BLS workbook. If you are comparing this guide to a national median you saw somewhere else, do not treat those as the same number. The measures answer different questions.
That is also why this page stays conservative. It does not invent a certification premium, remote-work premium, or state relocation payoff that the BLS table itself does not publish.
Best next step if you are comparing training paths
For the broader role and training path, open the Project Manager career page. If you are still deciding how to enter the field, read How to Become a Project Manager, compare CAPM vs PMP vs Google PM, and browse the Workforce Training hub.
BLS source note
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024, state downloadable workbook (
/oes/special-requests/oesm24st.zipstate_M2024_dlFigures on this page represent BLS wage data for the occupation as a whole, not a promise about what a new learner will earn after training.
Frequently Asked Questions
What BLS occupation does this salary guide use?
This guide uses Project Management Specialists, SOC 13-1082, from the BLS OEWS May 2024 state workbook.
Which of these five states pays the most?
New York has the highest published mean annual wage in this five-state sample at $121,040, narrowly ahead of California at $120,920.
Does this table show state median pay?
No. The figures in the state table are the published mean annual and hourly wages from BLS OEWS May 2024, not a state-by-state median for this page.
Does this guarantee what a beginner will make?
No. BLS occupation-level wage data is useful market context, but it is not an offer, guarantee, or promise of entry-level pay.
Where should I go next on Qualora?
Start with the primary career page for the full role overview, then compare related articles, courses, or categories before you decide on training.
Related Career Paths
Tags: salary, project-manager, project-management, bls