These Are The 10 States With The Highest Server Salaries For 2017

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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 servers 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 servers 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 server salaries change across America, we decided to take a look the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average pay for servers 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 servers after this adjustment? That would be Michigan. Here’s a quick snapshot of the top ten states for server salaries:

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

How we determined server pay by state

As we mentioned earlier, we took the average annual salary data for servers 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 $30,140, so our index value would be:

$30,140 * (100 / 135.9) = $22,178

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

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

Detailed List Of Server Salaries By State

Rank	State	Adjusted Salary	Average Wage	Cost Of Living
1	Michigan	$27,764	$24,710	89.0
2	West Virginia	$27,152	$25,360	93.4
3	Minnesota	$25,634	$25,840	100.8
4	Kentucky	$25,425	$23,010	90.5
5	North Dakota	$25,100	$24,950	99.4
6	Washington	$24,458	$25,730	105.2
7	Illinois	$24,196	$22,890	94.6
8	Nebraska	$24,181	$22,150	91.6
9	Indiana	$24,078	$21,550	89.5
10	Wyoming	$23,921	$21,960	91.8
11	Nevada	$23,901	$24,690	103.3
12	Idaho	$23,887	$22,000	92.1
13	South Dakota	$23,722	$24,600	103.7
14	Georgia	$23,708	$21,670	91.4
15	Tennessee	$23,210	$20,750	89.4
16	Florida	$23,001	$22,610	98.3
17	New York	$22,938	$30,050	131.0
18	Iowa	$22,824	$20,770	91.0
19	Alabama	$22,774	$20,770	91.2
20	Ohio	$22,761	$21,350	93.8
21	Delaware	$22,702	$23,020	101.4
22	Oklahoma	$22,634	$20,190	89.2
23	Utah	$22,387	$20,820	93.0
24	Colorado	$22,302	$23,150	103.8
25	Missouri	$22,245	$20,110	90.4
26	Arkansas	$22,215	$19,350	87.1
27	California	$22,178	$30,140	135.9
28	Mississippi	$21,990	$18,890	85.9
29	Arizona	$21,928	$21,490	98.0
30	Oregon	$21,877	$25,290	115.6
31	Pennsylvania	$21,794	$22,100	101.4
32	Connecticut	$21,769	$27,800	127.7
33	Wisconsin	$21,683	$20,990	96.8
34	Texas	$21,642	$19,630	90.7
35	Vermont	$21,610	$26,170	121.1
36	Montana	$21,557	$21,730	100.8
37	North Carolina	$21,267	$19,970	93.9
38	Kansas	$20,945	$18,830	89.9
39	Virginia	$20,555	$20,720	100.8
40	Louisiana	$20,495	$19,430	94.8
41	Rhode Island	$20,347	$24,560	120.7
42	South Carolina	$20,292	$20,130	99.2
43	Maine	$19,828	$21,970	110.8
44	Massachusetts	$19,715	$26,300	133.4
45	New Mexico	$19,709	$19,020	96.5
46	New Jersey	$19,696	$24,010	121.9
47	Maryland	$18,836	$23,640	125.5
48	New Hampshire	$18,666	$21,840	117.0
49	Alaska	$17,856	$23,410	131.1
50	Hawaii	$17,814	$29,910	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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