These Are The 10 States With The Highest Childcare Provider Salaries

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Without fail, in surveys across basically every demographic, the number one most important aspect of a job for most people is the salary — how much do in-home childcare providers get paid where I live?

And while there are many things to go into how much you, specifically, can expect to make, there’s really good data for average salaries for in-home childcare providers by state across America broken down by seniority level. So while your city may be slightly different than the state average, these averages give you a rough sense of what to expect for your salary.

To better understand how in-home childcare provider salaries change across America, we decided to take a look the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average pay for in-home childcare providers by state.

Additionally, we wanted to adjust the salary based on the cost of living in a state — because your salary goes further in North Carolina than it does in California.

The state with the best salary for in-home childcare providers after this adjustment? That would be Michigan. Here’s a quick snapshot of the top ten states for in-home childcare provider salaries:

Let’s take a look at how we got here and a full ranking of all the states.

How we determined in-home childcare provider pay by state

As we mentioned earlier, we took the average annual salary data for in-home childcare providers from the 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically their “Occupational Employment Statistics”.

To make the comparison of salaries apples to apples across states, we also took into account the cost of living in each state.

We then created an index by dividing the average wage for a state by the cost of living relative to average. As an example, the cost of living index in California is 135.9 and the average pay is $26,050, so our index value would be:

$26,050 * (100 / 135.9) = $19,168

We then ranked every state on this criteria with the state with the highest salary index ranking as highest average salary for in-home childcare providers.

Here’s a look at the full ranking for all states.

Detailed List Of In-Home Childcare Provider Salaries By State

Rank	State	Adjusted Salary	Average Wage	Cost Of Living
1	Michigan	$24,876	$22,140	89.0
2	Illinois	$24,524	$23,200	94.6
3	Colorado	$24,152	$25,070	103.8
4	Washington	$23,868	$25,110	105.2
5	Wyoming	$23,845	$21,890	91.8
6	Utah	$23,580	$21,930	93.0
7	Ohio	$23,400	$21,950	93.8
8	Minnesota	$23,263	$23,450	100.8
9	Tennessee	$22,527	$20,140	89.4
10	Missouri	$22,522	$20,360	90.4
11	Georgia	$22,516	$20,580	91.4
12	Nebraska	$22,467	$20,580	91.6
13	Indiana	$22,446	$20,090	89.5
14	North Carolina	$22,342	$20,980	93.9
15	Kentucky	$22,320	$20,200	90.5
16	Texas	$22,315	$20,240	90.7
17	Virginia	$22,261	$22,440	100.8
18	Kansas	$22,068	$19,840	89.9
19	Wisconsin	$21,983	$21,280	96.8
20	Arizona	$21,755	$21,320	98.0
21	Nevada	$21,626	$22,340	103.3
22	Florida	$21,576	$21,210	98.3
23	Arkansas	$21,515	$18,740	87.1
24	Mississippi	$21,513	$18,480	85.9
25	Oklahoma	$21,468	$19,150	89.2
26	Delaware	$21,439	$21,740	101.4
27	West Virginia	$21,359	$19,950	93.4
28	Oregon	$21,115	$24,410	115.6
29	Idaho	$20,944	$19,290	92.1
30	New Mexico	$20,860	$20,130	96.5
31	Iowa	$20,802	$18,930	91.0
32	Pennsylvania	$20,719	$21,010	101.4
33	North Dakota	$20,674	$20,550	99.4
34	Vermont	$20,520	$24,850	121.1
35	Alabama	$20,493	$18,690	91.2
36	Montana	$20,327	$20,490	100.8
37	New Jersey	$20,147	$24,560	121.9
38	New York	$20,061	$26,280	131.0
39	Maine	$20,027	$22,190	110.8
40	Louisiana	$19,905	$18,870	94.8
41	Massachusetts	$19,737	$26,330	133.4
42	South Dakota	$19,652	$20,380	103.7
43	Alaska	$19,557	$25,640	131.1
44	Maryland	$19,474	$24,440	125.5
45	South Carolina	$19,395	$19,240	99.2
46	California	$19,168	$26,050	135.9
47	Connecticut	$19,083	$24,370	127.7
48	New Hampshire	$18,974	$22,200	117.0
49	Rhode Island	$18,806	$22,700	120.7
50	Hawaii	$12,078	$20,280	167.9

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Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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