Top Metros for Accountants and Auditors in 2026: New York Leads Overall as California Tech Hubs Pay the Most

Across the top 10 metros for accountants and auditors, LaborCove’s data shows that New York-Newark-Jersey City combines the highest overall Geography Score with the largest employment count, while several California and coastal metros stand out for median salaries well above the national benchmark. At the same time, mid-ranked metros such as Chicago and Dallas illustrate that a metro can appear in the top 10 with median salaries near the national median when paired with substantial employment. The ranking order also separates salary from overall position: San Jose has the highest median salary among these metros but ranks third rather than first, and San Francisco ranks fourth despite a higher median salary than higher-ranked Washington and Boston. This highlights that the LaborCove Geography Score incorporates more than a single metric when assessing metros for accountants and auditors.

The national median annual salary for accountants and auditors is $83,680. Within the top 10 metros, eight have median salaries above this national figure: New York-Newark-Jersey City at $105,650, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim at $94,360, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at $121,700, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont at $110,730, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria at $102,140, Boston-Cambridge-Newton at $100,150, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue at $99,370, and Denver-Aurora-Centennial at $100,020. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $82,360 and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at $82,620 are below the national median. National employment for accountants and auditors is 1,449,500 jobs. Among the top 10 metros, New York-Newark-Jersey City has the largest employment count at 111,930, while San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara has 13,180. These metro-level employment counts are subsets of the national total, illustrating the share represented by specific regions rather than the overall size of the occupation.

New York-Newark-Jersey City ranks first in LaborCove’s metro list for accountants and auditors with a Geography Score of 81.63. Its employment count of 111,930 is the largest among the top 10 metros, and it is also identified as the largest employment market in the available geographic data. This places New York ahead of second-ranked Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, which has 70,640 jobs. On salary, New York’s median of $105,650 is above the national median of $83,680 but lower than the median salaries in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at $121,700 and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont at $110,730. This shows that New York’s #1 ranking and highest Geography Score among these metros are not based on having the top reported salary level, but on its overall scoring profile, which includes its large employment base.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara has the highest median salary among the top 10 metros at $121,700, exceeding both the national median of $83,680 and New York’s $105,650. Despite this, San Jose ranks third overall with a Geography Score of 62.27, behind New York at 81.63 and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim at 62.71. Its employment count of 13,180 is smaller than those of New York, Los Angeles at 70,640, and several other metros in the top 10. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont has a median salary of $110,730, which is lower than San Jose’s $121,700 but higher than New York’s $105,650 and Los Angeles’s $94,360. It ranks fourth, with a Geography Score of 58.88, and an employment count of 25,170. The fact that San Jose and San Francisco both report median salaries above every other metro in this list, yet sit third and fourth in the rankings, underlines that salary alone does not determine a metro’s position in the LaborCove Geography Score.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria ranks fifth with a LaborCove Geography Score of 56.36, a median salary of $102,140, and employment of 41,470. Its median salary is higher than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim’s $94,360 and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin’s $82,360, while its employment count is smaller than New York’s 111,930 but slightly larger than Chicago’s 41,360. Boston-Cambridge-Newton ranks sixth with a Geography Score of 55.83, a median salary of $100,150, and employment of 37,150. Boston’s median salary of $100,150 is higher than Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue’s $99,370 and Denver-Aurora-Centennial’s $100,020 only in relation to Seattle and lower than San Jose’s $121,700 and San Francisco’s $110,730. These mid-ranked metros illustrate that six-figure median salaries can coincide with moderate employment counts in the tens of thousands within the top 10.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin ranks ninth with a Geography Score of 47.88, a median salary of $82,360, and an employment count of 41,360. Its median salary is below the national median of $83,680, and also below Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington’s $82,620 by a small margin. However, Chicago’s employment count of 41,360 is larger than Dallas’s 37,450. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington rounds out the top 10 with a Geography Score of 47.30, a median salary of $82,620, and employment of 37,450. Its median salary is below the national median but slightly above Chicago’s $82,360. Together, Chicago and Dallas illustrate that a metro can appear in the top 10 with Geography Scores in the high 40s and median salaries near, but below, the national median when paired with employment counts in the mid-to-high thirty-thousand range. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue and Denver-Aurora-Centennial, ranked seventh and eighth with Geography Scores of 51.15 and 50.68 respectively, sit between the high-salary coastal metros and the Chicago–Dallas pair. Seattle’s median salary of $99,370 is lower than Boston’s $100,150 and Denver’s median salary of $100,020 is lower than San Francisco’s $110,730, while their employment counts of 22,100 and 22,720 are smaller than those in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Boston, Chicago, and Dallas.

LaborCove builds its metro rankings for accountants and auditors using authoritative labor-market data, including median annual salary, employment counts, and other factors captured in the LaborCove Geography Score. The national median salary, national employment, and national projected employment growth rate of 4.6% provide context for how individual metros compare at the national level. For this article, only the top 10 metros in LaborCove’s ranking are analyzed. Each metro’s position is determined by its Geography Score, not by any single measure such as salary or employment alone. A higher or lower Geography Score reflects LaborCove’s combined assessment of the available data. These rankings are a starting point for comparing locations. Accountants and auditors should consider how the reported salaries, employment sizes, and Geography Scores align with their own preferences, recognizing that the scoring summarizes labor-market characteristics rather than predicting any individual’s job prospects or outcomes.