The 10 States With The Highest Electrical Engineer 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 electrical engineers 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 electrical engineers 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 electrical engineers after this adjustment? That would be Electrical Engineers.

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

To better understand how electrical engineer salaries change across America, we decided to take a look the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average pay for electrical engineers 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 electrical engineer pay by state

As we mentioned earlier, we took the average annual salary data for electrical engineers 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 $126640, so our index value would be:

$126,640 * (100 / 135.9) = $93,186

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

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

Detailed List Of Electrical Engineer Salaries By State

Rank	State	Adjusted Salary	Average Wage	Cost Of Living
1	Georgia	$123,161	$112,570	91.4
2	Idaho	$121,096	$111,530	92.1
3	Alabama	$119,616	$109,090	91.2
4	New Mexico	$117,772	$113,650	96.5
5	Texas	$117,750	$106,800	90.7
6	Louisiana	$117,067	$110,980	94.8
7	Oklahoma	$113,251	$101,020	89.2
8	Delaware	$113,234	$114,820	101.4
9	Washington	$113,013	$118,890	105.2
10	Iowa	$112,340	$102,230	91.0
11	North Carolina	$110,489	$103,750	93.9
12	Tennessee	$110,324	$98,630	89.4
13	Michigan	$109,853	$97,770	89.0
14	Utah	$109,505	$101,840	93.0
15	Missouri	$109,435	$98,930	90.4
16	Virginia	$109,057	$109,930	100.8
17	Indiana	$107,385	$96,110	89.5
18	Illinois	$105,909	$100,190	94.6
19	Mississippi	$105,681	$90,780	85.9
20	Pennsylvania	$103,934	$105,390	101.4
21	Nebraska	$102,762	$94,130	91.6
22	Kentucky	$102,486	$92,750	90.5
23	West Virginia	$102,334	$95,580	93.4
24	Ohio	$102,324	$95,980	93.8
25	Wyoming	$102,015	$93,650	91.8
26	Arizona	$101,867	$99,830	98.0
27	North Dakota	$101,257	$100,650	99.4
28	Minnesota	$101,101	$101,910	100.8
29	Arkansas	$101,090	$88,050	87.1
30	Colorado	$100,674	$104,500	103.8
31	Kansas	$99,844	$89,760	89.9
32	Nevada	$98,015	$101,250	103.3
33	New Hampshire	$97,333	$113,880	117.0
34	South Carolina	$96,280	$95,510	99.2
35	Florida	$95,900	$94,270	98.3
36	Wisconsin	$95,247	$92,200	96.8
37	Rhode Island	$94,946	$114,600	120.7
38	Maryland	$93,984	$117,950	125.5
39	California	$93,186	$126,640	135.9
40	South Dakota	$92,912	$96,350	103.7
41	New Jersey	$90,303	$110,080	121.9
42	Massachusetts	$88,530	$118,100	133.4
43	Oregon	$88,261	$102,030	115.6
44	Montana	$85,783	$86,470	100.8
45	Maine	$83,709	$92,750	110.8
46	Vermont	$83,253	$100,820	121.1
47	New York	$82,068	$107,510	131.0
48	Connecticut	$81,221	$103,720	127.7
49	Alaska	$77,772	$101,960	131.1
50	Hawaii	$65,491	$109,960	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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