# US states by average hourly earnings, private employees, August 2026

All 51 values come from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2026-08, so the places are comparable.

- Indicator id: `avg_hourly_earnings_private`
- Unit: USD
- Definition: Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls, in US dollars, not seasonally adjusted, from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, State and Area: average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, statewide, not seasonally adjusted (SMU, state, 000000500000003) (https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/sm/sm.data.56.TotalPrivate.Current)
- Publisher page: https://invokely.ai/en/publishers/bureau-of-labor-statistics
- Retrieved: 2026-10-12
- Citation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Current Employment Statistics, State and Area: average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, statewide, not seasonally adjusted (SMU, state, 000000500000003). https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/sm/sm.data.56.TotalPrivate.Current. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/rankings/average-hourly-earnings/us-states

| Rank | Place | USD |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 58.7 |
| 2 | Washington | 43.93 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | 43.38 |
| 4 | California | 42.54 |
| 5 | Hawaii | 40.76 |
| 6 | Colorado | 40.31 |
| 7 | New York | 40.13 |
| 8 | Connecticut | 39.75 |
| 9 | Minnesota | 39.67 |
| 10 | New Jersey | 39.47 |
| 11 | Virginia | 38.94 |
| 12 | Oregon | 38.68 |
| 13 | Maryland | 38.5 |
| 14 | Alaska | 38.17 |
| 15 | Rhode Island | 37.97 |
| 16 | Illinois | 36.93 |
| 17 | Arizona | 36.54 |
| 18 | Florida | 36.37 |
| 18 | Texas | 36.37 |
| 20 | New Hampshire | 36.22 |
| 21 | Georgia | 36.1 |
| 22 | North Dakota | 35.93 |
| 23 | Utah | 35.89 |
| 24 | Vermont | 35.77 |
| 25 | Idaho | 35.62 |
| 26 | North Carolina | 34.61 |
| 27 | Ohio | 34.44 |
| 28 | Michigan | 34.43 |
| 28 | Missouri | 34.43 |
| 30 | Wisconsin | 34.21 |
| 31 | Delaware | 34.07 |
| 32 | Pennsylvania | 33.88 |
| 33 | Nevada | 33.83 |
| 34 | Maine | 33.77 |
| 35 | Wyoming | 33.41 |
| 36 | Montana | 33.39 |
| 37 | Indiana | 33.38 |
| 38 | Kansas | 33.13 |
| 38 | South Carolina | 33.13 |
| 40 | Nebraska | 32.79 |
| 41 | Alabama | 32.54 |
| 42 | Oklahoma | 32.3 |
| 43 | South Dakota | 32.13 |
| 44 | Tennessee | 32.07 |
| 45 | New Mexico | 31.32 |
| 46 | Louisiana | 31.19 |
| 47 | Iowa | 30.81 |
| 48 | Kentucky | 30.79 |
| 49 | West Virginia | 30.33 |
| 50 | Arkansas | 30.05 |
| 51 | Mississippi | 29.52 |