Top Metros for Chief Executives: LA Ranks #1 While Smaller Markets Like Medford and Midland Offer the Highest Pay

Across the U.S., chief executives have a national median annual salary of $213,990 and national employment of 204,350, with a projected national employment growth rate of 4.3% for the occupation. Within that national picture, LaborCove’s metro-level results show that high salaries, larger employment counts, and Geography Scores do not always move in the same direction. Among the top 10 metros, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA stands out as the #1 ranked market with a Geography Score of 59.96 and the largest supplied employment count of 10,800. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ ranks #2 with 7,180 employed chief executives and a Geography Score of 57.51. Medford, OR and Midland, MI appear in the top 10 despite much smaller employment counts, reflecting how LaborCove’s scoring surfaces both large and small markets. Reported salaries also vary widely across the list. Among metros with supplied pay data, Medford, OR shows a median salary of $615,500 and Midland, MI shows $587,950, each well above the national median. In contrast, the #1 ranked Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has a median salary of $234,290, which is above the national median but far lower than the highest metro figures on this list, highlighting that ranking, salary, and scale measure different things in LaborCove’s framework.

Nationally, chief executives have a median annual salary of $213,990 and total employment of 204,350. The occupation also has a projected national employment growth rate of 4.3%, which provides a broad indicator of how demand for this role is expected to change across the U.S. LaborCove’s metro analysis sits within that national backdrop. The top 10 metros in this ranking represent a small share of total U.S. employment for chief executives but show how pay, employment counts, and Geography Scores can differ substantially from the national benchmarks. Because this projected 4.3% figure is national-only, it does not describe or imply a growth rate for any individual metro on the list. The metro comparisons in this article are based on their supplied salaries, employment counts, and Geography Scores, not on metro-specific growth projections.

Employment counts for chief executives vary widely across the top 10 metros. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, ranked #1 overall, has the largest supplied employment count at 10,800. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ, ranked #2, has 7,180 employed chief executives. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA follow with 5,210 and 5,190 employed chief executives, respectively. By contrast, Medford, OR and Midland, MI rank #4 and #7 with much smaller employment counts of 40 and 60, respectively. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA, ranked #10, has 2,060 employed chief executives, which is smaller than the employment figure in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA, and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD. These differences show that both large and small labor markets appear in the top 10, and that LaborCove’s rankings are not limited to metros with the largest employment counts.

Among metros with supplied salary data, several stand out for high median annual pay relative to the national median of $213,990. Medford, OR has a reported median salary of $615,500, and Midland, MI reports $587,950. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA reports $370,000, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN reports $344,960, and New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ reports $301,440. Each of these metros has a supplied median salary higher than the national median. Other metros in the top 10 with supplied salary data include Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at $234,290, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at $288,690, and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD at $292,770. Each of these salaries is also above the national median of $213,990. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA are in the top 10 but do not have supplied median salary values in this evidence, so their pay levels cannot be compared here to the national benchmark or to other metros on the list.

The #1 ranked metro, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, has a LaborCove Geography Score of 59.96 and a median salary of $234,290. While this salary is higher than the national median of $213,990, it is lower than the supplied median salaries in several other top-10 metros, including Medford, OR at $615,500, Midland, MI at $587,950, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA at $370,000, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN at $344,960, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ at $301,440, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD at $292,770, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at $288,690. This pattern shows that a higher median salary does not automatically correspond to a higher LaborCove Geography Score or a higher ranking. For example, Medford, OR has both a higher median salary and a higher median salary relative to the national benchmark than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, yet it ranks #4 with a Geography Score of 49.66, which is lower than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA’s Geography Score of 59.96. Similarly, Midland, MI reports a much higher median salary than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA but ranks #7 with a Geography Score of 47.42, below both Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. This illustrates that LaborCove’s rankings incorporate more than just pay levels.

LaborCove Geography Scores provide a standardized way to compare metros. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA ranks #1 with a score of 59.96, and New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ ranks #2 with 57.51. Both scores are higher than those for all other metros in the top 10. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, ranked #3, has a Geography Score of 51.62. Medford, OR and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA, ranked #4 and #5, have Geography Scores of 49.66 and 49.57, respectively. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ranks #6 with a score of 48.63, and Midland, MI ranks #7 with 47.42. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD, and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA round out the top 10 with Geography Scores of 45.10, 44.22, and 43.91, respectively. These scores show a gradual decline from the top-ranked metros to the lower end of the top 10, even as salaries and employment counts move in different directions across the list.

LaborCove builds these metro rankings for chief executives (occupation 11-1011) using authoritative U.S. labor-market data and its proprietary Geography Score methodology. For this article, national median annual salary, national employment, and the projected national employment growth rate refer to the chief executives occupation as a whole. The underlying Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations are referenced to May 2025, while the ReportYear 2026 identifies the product year for this dataset. At the metro level, LaborCove’s evidence for this article includes: median annual salary (when supplied), employment counts, and the LaborCove Geography Score and ranking for each area. Geography Scores summarize how each metro performs across LaborCove’s scoring framework, but the specific internal weighting of salary, employment, or other components is not disclosed in this evidence. These rankings are best used as one structured input into a personal decision. The data describe compensation levels, employment counts, and relative Geography Scores for chief executives; they do not measure job openings, the number of employers, or the likelihood that any particular executive will secure a role in a given metro.