The 10 States With The Highest Dental Hygienist Salaries For 2023

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 dental hygienists 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 dental hygienists 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.

The state with the best salary for dental hygienists after this adjustment? That would be Dental Hygienists.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the top ten states for salaries:

To better understand how salaries change across America, we decided to take a look the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average pay for dental hygienists 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.

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

How we determined pay by state

As we mentioned earlier, we took the average annual salary data for dental hygienists from the 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 $100830, so our index value would be:

$100,830 * (100 / 135.9) = $74,194

We then ranked every state on this criteria with the state with the highest salary index ranking as highest average salary for dental hygienists.

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

Detailed List Of Dental Hygienist Salaries By State

Rank	State	Adjusted Salary	Average Wage	Cost Of Living
1	Arizona	$87,642	$85,890	98.0
2	Alaska	$87,200	$114,320	131.1
3	Washington	$86,207	$90,690	105.2
4	Texas	$83,020	$75,300	90.7
5	Oklahoma	$82,948	$73,990	89.2
6	Arkansas	$81,618	$71,090	87.1
7	Colorado	$81,416	$84,510	103.8
8	Idaho	$80,814	$74,430	92.1
9	Virginia	$79,007	$79,640	100.8
10	Nevada	$78,673	$81,270	103.3
11	New Mexico	$78,611	$75,860	96.5
12	Delaware	$77,465	$78,550	101.4
13	Illinois	$76,786	$72,640	94.6
14	Missouri	$76,128	$68,820	90.4
15	Indiana	$75,977	$68,000	89.5
16	Wyoming	$75,838	$69,620	91.8
17	Iowa	$75,681	$68,870	91.0
18	Utah	$74,720	$69,490	93.0
19	California	$74,194	$100,830	135.9
20	Tennessee	$74,149	$66,290	89.4
21	North Carolina	$74,014	$69,500	93.9
22	Oregon	$73,771	$85,280	115.6
23	Montana	$73,759	$74,350	100.8
24	Minnesota	$73,650	$74,240	100.8
25	North Dakota	$73,018	$72,580	99.4
26	Ohio	$72,825	$68,310	93.8
27	Kansas	$72,280	$64,980	89.9
28	Michigan	$72,056	$64,130	89.0
29	Nebraska	$71,910	$65,870	91.6
30	Georgia	$71,827	$65,650	91.4
31	New Jersey	$70,434	$85,860	121.9
32	New Hampshire	$68,000	$79,560	117.0
33	Maryland	$67,920	$85,240	125.5
34	Wisconsin	$67,706	$65,540	96.8
35	Mississippi	$67,357	$57,860	85.9
36	Kentucky	$66,198	$59,910	90.5
37	Pennsylvania	$66,084	$67,010	101.4
38	Connecticut	$65,489	$83,630	127.7
39	Florida	$65,178	$64,070	98.3
40	Louisiana	$63,090	$59,810	94.8
41	South Dakota	$62,275	$64,580	103.7
42	Massachusetts	$62,031	$82,750	133.4
43	South Carolina	$61,935	$61,440	99.2
44	Rhode Island	$61,847	$74,650	120.7
45	West Virginia	$61,820	$57,740	93.4
46	Vermont	$59,859	$72,490	121.1
47	Maine	$59,115	$65,500	110.8
48	New York	$58,229	$76,280	131.0
49	Alabama	$50,986	$46,500	91.2
50	Hawaii	$46,408	$77,920	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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